1 / 



THE BILLIONAIRE GROUP 
IT MUST BE SMASHED 



t 



l v -._. 



The Howe 
System 




A REAL REMEDY— ECONOMIC LIBERTY 
READY FOR VOTERS 




The 



Howell System 



By CHARLES M. HOWELL 



A PROPOSED SYSTEM— NOT. A MERE THEORY 

OF NATIONAL LAWS EQUALLY OPPOSED TO 

THE ILLUSIVE DREAMS OF SOCIALISM 

AND TO THE LAWLESS METHODS 

OF PREDATORY WEALTH 

FOR THE 

INAUGURATION, ENFORCEMENT AND 
PERPETUITY OF ECONOMIC LIBERTY 



READY FOR THE ELECTORS OF THE ENTIRE COUNTRT TO VOTE ON 
WHENEVER THET ARE SO MINDED. 



ISAAC H. BLANCH ARD COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 

268 CANAL STREET, NEW YORK 

191 1 




^ 




COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY 

CHARLES M. HOWELL 
(All Rights Reserved) 

AUTHOR OF 

: 'Colossal Fortunes," 1888, in Magazine and Pampi.let: 

A New Economic System," 1890, a Series of Articles in The Chicago Daily 
Morning News and Pamphlet. 

'A National Square-Deal System," 1905-6, a Series of Twenty Articles in The 
Philadelphia North American. 

"A National Prosperity System for All the People," 1908, in Five New York 
Weeklies, etc., etc. 



Permanent Copyright Title now Selected is 
THE HOWELL SYSTEM 



*/ 






:CLA293712 



TO 
MARY FRANCES HOWELL, 

Type of the Most Courageous, Noblest, Christian 

MOTHER, 

Is This Little Volume Dedicated by Her Son, 

The Author. 



THE TRINITY OF FREEDOM: 

POLITICAL LIBERTY— RELIGIOUS LIBERTY— ECONOMIC LIBERTY. 
The Last is Yet to be Achieved — The Method, The Howell System. 



MATERIAL RELIEF TO NINETY-FIVE PER CENT AND JUS- 
TICE TO ONE HUNDRED PER CENT OF THE POPULATION 
OF THIS GREATEST OF ALL REPUBLICS 



We Have 

POLITICAL LIBERTY 

We Have 

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY 

We Have NOT, but We Can and Must Have 
ECONOMIC LIBERTY 



THE BILLIONAIRE GROUP 

Its Evil, Irresponsible and Unlimited Wealth-Power Must be Legally 

Smashed. This Can be Done Only by the Great Masses of 

the People Acting as a UNIT for their Own Preservation 



THE ONE AVAILABLE METHOD IS 

THE HOWELL SYSTEM 
OF NATIONAL LAWS 



Some reckon their age by years, 

Some measure their life by art, 

But some tell their days by the flow of their tears, 

And their life by the moans of their heart. 

Father Ryan. 



THE TEXT PROPER SETTING FORTH THE PROPOSED 
HOWELL SYSTEM IS FOUND IN PART III. 



GENERAL INDEX 



Page 

- 7 



PART I. TO THE PUBLIC ------ 

Initial Articles Published in 1885 ; Have Reached 
Some Hundreds of Thousands of People ; Overwhelm- 
ing Approval ; No Initial Help from Metropolitan 
Press, Orthodox Party Politicians or the Excessively 
Rich; Appeal Must be Made to the Great Mass of the 
People, the Ninety-Five Per Cent; Guarantee as to 
Motives ; Criticisms Invited ; Acknowledgments. 
PART II. THE BILLIONAIRE GROUP; "AND, HENCE, 

ALSO"; - - - - - - - - - 15 

"The Interests" — "The Money Trust" — Herein New- 
ly Christened. In Full Control; Relentless; Irrespon- 
sible. 
TART III. TEXT OF PROPOSED SYSTEM - 23 

(This Part Should be Studied Paragraph by Para- 
graph.) Amendment to the Constitution of the United 
States; Initial Bill in Congress; Simplicity of System 
and Tax Table Explained. 
PART IV. PERTINENT PARAGRAPHING - 55 

Touching on Many Important Points ; The Mob Rule 
of Dollars; Moral Turpitude of All Excessive Riches; 
Class Hatred ; The Wall Street Game ; Economic 
Tyranny ; Economic Liberty ; Muck-Rakers, Etc. 
PART V. NOTABLE UTTERANCES BY NOTABLES- 

COMMENTS - ------- 51 

Roosevelt, Dr. Peters, Bryan, Llearst, Morgan, Per- 
kins, Ryan, Marshall, Rabbi Wise, Governor Wilson, 
Lawson, Hampton's Magazine, New York World and 
Others. Christ's Teachings as to Riches. 
PART VI. PROPOSED SYSTEM ORIGINAL - 73 

Socialism and Single-Tax Studied and Discarded as 
Practicable Remedies ; Excerpts from Earlier Pub- 
lished Articles and Pamphlets ; Andrew Carnegie's 
"The Man Who Dies Thus Rich Dies Disgraced" ; 
"Second Only to the Declaration of Independence"; 
Duty of Society to Improve Economic Conditions, Etc. 
PART VII. FICTION SKETCHES GERMANE TO THE 
SUBJECT - -. - 

The Balance Sheet of Life 

Chronicles Writ in Year 1925 — With Cartoon, by 
W. M. Washburn 

The Original Skidoo Twenty-Three Before Ate, 
Goddess of Revenge — With Cartoon, by W. M. 
Washburn 

Midas Billionaire at the River Styx 
PART VIII. BLANK FORMS FOR READERS TO FILL OUT 
AND MAIL - - - 

Form for General Approval ; Same, with Contribu- 
tion Clause; For Capitalist or Other Person of Means; 
Special for Ministers of the Gospel; For Editors and 
Publishers; For Knockers Against the Howell System; 
For Ordering Pamphlet and Literature. 

The Unmercenaries, A Gem, by An Unknown 112 



87 
89 

93 



96 
100 

103 



PART I 

TO THE PUBLIC 

Initial Articles Published in 1885. Have Reached 
Several Hundred Thousand People; Overwhelming Ap- 
proval ; No Initial Help From Metropolitan Press, or From 
Orthodox Party Politicians, or From the Excessively Rich ; 
Appeal Must Be Made to the Great Mass of the People, 
the Ninety-Five Per Cent of the Population ; Guarantee 
as to Motives ; No Political Aspirations ; Criticisms Invited ; 
Ministers of the Gospel Especially Urged to Discuss ; Busi- 
ness Men and Others Refused Proper Financial Facilities ; 
Permission to Quote to Limited Extent; Acknowledg- 
ments. 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM— I 



TO the best of my humble abilities, as lawyer, newspaper 
editor, student of current economic conditions, pamphle- 
teer, special writer, and in public addresses, from time to 
time since 1885, I have presented to some hundreds of thousands 
of people the essential features of my proposed System of Na- 
tional Laws for the bringing about of Economic Liberty. 

The particulars and main purposes of the proposed System 
are set forth in the following pages. The text proper is to be 
found in Part III. It comprises but a few pages. A careful, 
analytical study of this Part III, paragraph by paragraph, is 
urged upon the reader. In general terms, the chief object of the 
System may be variously expressed as being The Abolition of 
Preventable Poverty ; or, The Approximate Scientific Distribution 
of Wealth ; or, The Securing of An Open Field of Opportunity 
and Endeavor for xAll Men in the Struggle for Material Success 
— the Obtaining of Something More than a Bare Subsistence. 
However, the most comprehensive and accurate term explanatory 
of the chief object is that it is a National System of Laws for the 
Inauguration, Enforcement and Perpetuity of Economic Liberty. 
The term, Economic Liberty, is used in the same sense, and with 
the same accuracy of meaning, as we constantly use the terms 
Political Liberty and Religious Liberty. 

Has Met With Overwhelming Approval 

The diversified part of the reading and thinking millions of 
this republic whom I have thus reached is representative of the 
entire public. It is, therefore, a significant fact that my proposed 
System has met with overwhelming approval from nearly all 
classes of people. The very small objecting minority is repre- 
sentative of the Excessively Rich, their immediate dependents 
and beneficiaries. These, in a classification by themselves, repre- 
sent about five per cent of the population and about ninety-five 
per cent of the wealth of the country. Many have declared the 
proposed reform "Second Only to the Declaration of Independ- 
ence." However, if it were equally unpopular, it would still be 
Humane, Patriotic and Universally Just, 

9 



10 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

No Initial Help From Metropolitan Press 

No initial help in a movement of this kind, which has for its 
objects the immediate and direct advantage and permanent wel- 
fare of the people at large, and full justice to one hundred per 
cent of the population, may be expected from the Great Metro- 
politan Newspapers and Periodicals, notwithstanding their uni- 
formly brilliant and inestimable services to mankind, often with 
a splendid disregard for expenses, in almost every other domain of 
thought, science and research, and of human effort and achieve- 
ment. 

The public, however, must not expect such publications, which 
are largely either owned outright by "The Interests" or con- 
trolled by individuals of vast wealth, to take up any proposition 
which involves a fundamental or substantial reform in existing 
intolerable economic conditions — those conditions which govern 
the sources, production and distribution of wealth. In the main, 
these conditions are world-wide. In this republic, however, they 
are, at once, more inexcusable and more infamous than anywhere 
else on earth. Here they are responsible for the Mushroom 
growth of the C enti- Millionaire Economic Monstrosity, and for 
extreme contrasts between wealth and poverty never before 
known in the history of any people. Also for the existence of 
unemployed millions even during periods of greatest national 
prosperity, to say nothing of the higher and ever-increasing cost 
of living and a thousand other preventable injustices to and im- 
positions upon the more than ninety-five per cent of the popula- 
tion of the country. 

Passive or Active Friends of the Billionaire Group 

From personal experience, I Know whereof I speak regarding 
the attitude of the metropolitan press as a rule, for the simple 
reason that I have Tried Dozens of These Great Publications in 
Chicago, Philadelphia, New York and elsewhere. With a few 
"rare and radiant" exceptions, they have shown themselves to be 
the Passive or Active Friends of "The Interests'* — the Billionaire 
Group of National Exploiters of the people. This, too, in spite 
of the fact that nearly every one of them 1ms space and cash for 
all sorts of specialties and "features," from the pugnacious ebul- 
litions of the prizefighter on the edifying subject of Thuggery to 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 11 

the lachrymose dissertations of Laura Jean Libbey on Love. And 
especially do they devote constant attention and unlimited space 
to the enormously rich ; to their goings and comings and to their 
most inconsequential doings ; to their hacknied iterations and re- 
iterations of wonderful prosperity and opportunities for all alike; 
to their urgent admonitions to the millions of faithful employees 
of all classes throughout the land to be content with their lot, no 
matter what it may be, in the illusive hope that each one of them 
may be that particular one in a thousand who some day will be- 
come a millionaire ; and to their impertinent and un-American 
sophistry that the proposal of any real, fundamental economic re- 
form in behalf of the people at large is a stirring up of class 
hatred. 

Still, the vast majority of these same publications claim to dis- 
cover no "human interest" in a serious effort, along lines inde- 
pendent and untried, to solve, fundamentally and as completely 
as existing forms of government will permit, the One Problem 
which most vitally concerns the welfare, from the cradle to the 
grave, of every man, woman and child in the republic. However, 
it must be conceded that the owners of these great publications 
have a right to run them to suit themselves so far as politico- 
economic subjects and policies are concerned. Likewise, the 
people have an equal right to judge for themselves how deep and 
sincere is the interest of such publications in their material wel- 
fare. 

No Aid From Orthodox Party Politicians and Certain 

Others 

Nor is it worth while to look for any substantial aid from the 
orthodox party politicians, nor, as a class, although there may be 
individual exceptions, from those possessing even the millions of 
dollars which would not be materially affected under this System. 
And, of course, no help whatever may be looked for from a 
single one of the deci- or centi-millionaire class, no matter how 
extensive may be his charities and endowments nor how extrava- 
gantly he may be extolled by the press of the country. 

Indeed, why should a centi-millionaire, who is a mere human 
being after all, be expected to deprive himself of so agreeable a 
pastime as playing the role of chief-charity-giver-in-waiting to 



12 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

mankind? Why expect him to aid in waging a decisive warfare 
against those economic conditions which perform the double office 
of supplying him with more wealth than he knows what to do with 
and of spreading poverty broadcast throughout the land to such 
an extent that the most fabulous of benefactions still leave mil- 
lions of worthy people at all times in want and misery? 

To the Great Mass of the People (the 95 Per Cent) Must 

Appeal Be Made 

Hence, it is to the great mass of the people themselves, the 
more than ninety-five per cent, by such inadequate methods as I 
may be able to command, that I must continue to appeal for the 
vitalizing energy and financial support which are necessary to 
give my efforts the dignity and effectiveness of the national 
movement and propaganda which the momentous importance of 
the proposed reform justifies and demands. 

Guarantee As to Motives 

My twenty-five years of self-imposed effort in this cause is 
ample guarantee that I am not engaged in the work from merely 
mercenary motives. It has not been a financially profitable pro- 
ject. I have no doubt, however, when once the proposed System 
is fairly before the reading public, that reasonable prices will be 
cheerfully paid for the great amount of "literature" which will be 
required for an adequate, national propaganda. 

Do Not Seek Political Preferment 

Nor do I seek political preferment. I am an aspirant for no 
political office. So far as I am personally concerned, if a general 
vote could be taken on the question of my candidacy for any office, 
I would care no more how the issue might be affected by my views 
and proposals in this connection than I was agitated as to what 
would be the result of that profound, space-filling, newspaper 
query recently propounded, namely — "Which one possesses the 
higher type of beauty, the Blonde or the Brunette ?" 

Criticisms Invited 

Criticisms, favorable or otherwise, on the System advocated, 
are invited. Comments must be accompanied by names and ad- 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 13 

dresses, but they will be treated as confidential if writers so re- 
quest. Otherwise, I shall understand that I am authorized to use 
names and addresses for publication if occasion arises. 

Ministers of the Gospel Especially Urged to Discuss 

Ministers of the Gospel, of all denominations and creeds, are 
urged to discuss the proposed Howell System for the establishing 
of Economic Liberty. What would be the attitude of Christ, if 
he were a sojourner among us to-day, towards this great ethical, 
human problem of economic fair-play and justice? See blank 
form for ministers at back of book. 

Business Men and Others Refused Proper Financial 

Accommodations 

People of all occupations and professions, but especially per- 
sons engaged in all classes of commercial enterprises, who have 
found it impossible to secure moderate and timely loans from 
capitalists or banking institutions, on proffer of adequate endorse- 
ments or collateral security, are requested to mail to me short 
statements containing main particulars. It is my expectation to 
have such statements analyzed and tabulated for use in this 
movement for economic fair-play. See blank form at back of 
book. 

Permission to Quote to Limited Extent 

Not including any part of my Graduated Tax Table, the re- 
printing from this pamphlet of short extracts not to exceed one 
thousand words, is authorized by regular publications on condi- 
tion that they give proper credit. 

Acknowledgments 

I wish to thank, most heartily, the large number of persons 
who, through the press and by private correspondence, have ex- 
pressed themselves so freely on the subject of my proposed new 
economic System. Their views are none the less appreciated be- 
cause of the fact that it is impossible to respond to each one 
personally. 

See Blank Forms for Readers at Back of Pamphlet. 

Address: Charles M. Howell, 

32 Broadway, New York City. 



PART II 

THE BILLIONAIRE GROUP; "AND, HENCE, ALSO." 

"The Interests," "The Money Trust," "The System," 
Herein Newly Christened; Supreme in Power, Insatiable, 
Relentless and Irresponsible; Its Special Mission to Ex- 
ploit Ninety Millions of People; Official Proof of Ex- 
istence ; Money Trust Investigation ; Few Centi-Million- 
aires and the millions without property possessions 
Justly Their's; Hence, Higher and Constantly Increasing 
Cost of Living ; Shameful Lack of Available Opportunities 
Worth While for Most Men ; Lawlessness of New York 
Stock Exchange Methods; Hundreds of Millions for In- 
vestment Abroad but Lack of Funds for Worthy but Mod- 
erate Home Enterprises ; The Sure and Only Remedy Eco- 
nomic Liberty. 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM— II 



"The Interests" Newly Christened 

By the name, the Billionaire Group, I christen, as one mon- 
strous Economic Unit, "The Interests" — "The System" — "The 
Money Trust." As a matter of fact, however, it is a Multi-Bil- 
lionaire Group, but desiring to be conservative in all my state- 
ments and assertions in this connection, I adopt the former char- 
acterization, the Billionaire Group, as being less obnoxious than 
the latter one, even though it is also less accurate. 

Supreme in Power 

In this republic, the Billionaire Group is supreme in power. 
It is insatiable in its greed of wealth and merciless in the methods 
it employs to augment and perpetuate its wealth and power. It is 
unincorporated and intangible but perfectly organized and irre- 
sistible. It has come into existence and attained its present evil 
ascendency well within fifty years. 

Its Peculiar Mission 

The peculiar mission of the Billionaire Group is to exploit 
the more than ninety millions of people who own allegiance to 
the United States Government, and annually to convert to the 
ownership, use and benefit of its members, and to their immediate 
kith and kin and favorites, practically all of the surplus wealth 
of the country. 

Official Proof of Existence of Billionaire Group 

To all who are skeptical as to the existence of a Billionaire 
Group which dominates the financial and industrial affairs of 
the United States, I would suggest a glance over the chart re- 
cently presented, at New York City, to Special Examiner Mack- 
ley, representing the Inter- State Commerce Commission, show- 
ing the tremendous concentration of capital under the control of 
only two concerns, the United States Steel Corporation and J. P. 
Morgan & Company. This chart furnishes official proof of the 
fact that a little group of but twenty-five men control nearly 
2 17 



18 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

Sixteen Billion Dollars of the wealth of this country, and a glance 
through the list of names will convince any man that the twenty- 
five are dominated by a very small minority of their number. 
Furthermore, this vast wealth is represented by cash, stocks, bonds 
and other securities, classified as "quick assets," which, like a 
thoroughly drilled and seasoned army under a capable commander 
and experienced military officers, can be mobilized as if by magic 
and maneuvered with instant and unerring precision. 

And, yet, the chart referred to does not include any reference 
to many other of the largest individual fortunes, corporations 
and banking institutions represented by the Billionaire Group, 
such as the separate holdings of Carnegie, the Rockefellers, the 
Vanderbilts, the Astors, the Goulds, the Guggenheims, Ryan, Har- 
riman, the Field Estate, the Standard Oil Company, the Tobacco 
Trust, the Sugar Trust, and the great insurance companies, etc., 
etc. All the incomprehensible resources of this vast aggregation 
of wealth, when considered in connection with the fundamental 
economic rights and interests of the people at large can be count- 
ed on, always and inevitably, as sure as human nature is human 
nature, as being against their material welfare and their sub- 
stantial and progressive prosperity. 

This is the power, the power of the Multi-Billionaire Group 
but which I term the Billionaire Group, which has its grip on nine- 
ty millions of people who are politically free — a nation of eco- 
nomic pygmies and serfs dominated by a coterie of economic ty- 
rants, economic monstrosities. 

Controls All 

The Billionaire Group controls all the great industries, every 
important system of transportation and communication, all the 
great insurance companies, all the greatest banking institutions 
and all branches of finance. In a word, the Billionaire Group is 
in complete control of the economic conditions and forces of this 
greatest of all republics. In the domain of finance it is more 
powerful than the Federal Government itself. And, yet, under 
existing laws, in all the essential attributes of its money and 
economic power, it is accountable to no authority ; it is amenable 
to no legal restraints ; it is beyond the reach of the process of 
the highest courts of the land. 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 19 

Hence, the investigation by the Department of Justice of the 
United States Government, into the methods of that contingent 
of the Billionaire Group, the Money Trust, which manifests its 
evil and arbitrary power by the stupendous concentration of bank- 
ing capital in New York City ; and, 

Hence, also, in this connection, the truthful assertion by the 
Attorney General of the United States that the situation at present 
is the greatest economic problem before the world ; and his further 
declaration that the so-called unlawful combinations have grown 
faster than the law, and that the anti-trust statutes of the present 
time can not be hoped to keep pace with all the conditions which 
they are expected to remedy without revision and being brought 
up to date ; and, 

Hence, also, my own confident assertion that all the so-called 
anti-trust statutes which can be enacted, along the lines which 
have been followed right up to the present time, will be practi- 
cally useless until the monstrous, overgrown, economic power of 
the individual near-billionaires, centi-millionaires and deci-mil- 
lronaires, who constitute the personnel of the Billionaire Group, is 
brought under complete and permanent subjugation by The How- 
ell System of National Laws for the Inauguration, Enforcement 
and perpetuity of Economic Liberty; and, 

Hence, also, the few present-day near-billionaire private citi- 
zens ; the several centi-millionaire individuals ; the many deci- 
millionaires and the somewhat numerous multi-millionaires and 
some hundreds of ordinary millionaires ; a few millions of house- 
holders, and at least seventy-five millions of our ninety-three mil- 
lions of population without any property possessions or the re- 
motest prospect or possibility of acquiring the most modest com- 
petencies ; and, 

Hence, also, the higher and constantly increasing cost of liv- 
ing, with an occasional maladjustment of tariff rates contributing 
only a negligible fraction of that higher cost ; and, 

Hence, also, the Seventy Billions of Dollars' worth of securi- 
ties (bonds and stocks), for half of which there never was paid 
a dollar in cash nor any other equivalent rendered, but for which 
the real wealth-makers of the land must annually supply the vast 
sums required to pay the dividends and interest ; and, 

Hence, also, millions of capable, industrious, worthy producers 



20 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

of this never-ending output of national wealth forever toiling, 
year in and year out, for a total average wage which does not 
reach five hundred dollars a year, as against the income of 
that amount to the centi-millionaire every fifteen minutes; and, 

Hence, also, even in the frequently recurring years of excep- 
tional national, industrial and financial prosperity, approximately 
two millions of worthy workpeople vainly seeking employment, 
and other millions constantly on the verge of want; and, 

Hence, also, the employment, at all times, in mines, mills, 
factories, sweatshops and in nearly all branches of human labor, 
of children who know no childhood and no play-time, and of 
old men who have earned a rest but who know no rest, and 
whose painful, tottering steps lead them to welcome graves ; and, 

Hence, also, the astounding spectacle of the Billionaire Group 
as an economic product of the same national economic conditions 
which make it possible for only five out of every one hundred 
citizens of this republic who reach the age of sixty years to ac- 
quire even so modest a competency as suffices merely to house, 
clothe and feed them for their few remaining years ; and, 

Hence, also, when compared with the incomprehensible private 
incomes and accumulations of the beneficiaries of the Billionaire 
Group System, the insignificant wages and salaries paid to the 
rank and file of the industrial classes and to the vast army of 
high-class, indispensable employees in banks, offices and counting 
rooms; and the pitifully inadequate average compensation to the 
public school teachers of the land ; and the petty average financial 
returns to the overwhelming majority of professional people of 
all classes, to say nothing of the shameful dearth of Available op- 
portunities worth while to the great, splendid aggregation of 
brainy, temperate, hustling, capable American citizens who are 
engaged, all their lives, in persistent and heroic but losing efforts 
to win a degree of financial success which will place them and 
their worthy dependents beyond want and the ever-present fear 
of want ; and, 

Hence, also, fabulous donations and endowments by the centi- 
millionaire beneficiaries of these intolerable economic conditions, 
in their efforts to substitute stupendous, splendid charities for 
plain economic justice ; and, 

Hence, also, the practical control, directly or indirectly, of all 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM " 21 

the great newspapers and periodicals by the Billionaire Group, and 
the almost uniform antipathy of such publications for all efforts 
and suggestions in favor of any fundamental reform in economic 
conditions — those conditions, I repeat, which govern the sources, 
production and distribution of wealth ; and, 

Hence, also, a nation of more than Ninety Millions of financial, 
economic pygmies dominated and tyrannized over by a few scores 
of money colossi, herein specifically classified and labeled The 
Billionaire Group; and, 

Hence, also, the New York Stock Exchange, the concrete, 
tangible expression of the arbitrary powers of the Billionaire 
Group, and recently described by one of the most prominent law- 
yers of New York, in an address before the New York County 
Lawyers' Association, as being "in the immunity of all of its acts 
from legislative and judicial control, the anomaly of modern 
finance" ; and as constituting "still another tribute to the power 
of concentrated wealth to escape regulation" ; and as having 
"through all these years managed to remain above and beyond 
the law, with the privileges of a private club, free from all ac- 
countability for its acts — a law unto itself" ; and as "exercising 
the most despotic, uncontrolled and irresponsible powers of any 
body on earth charged with duties to the public" ; and, 

Hence, also, the world-wide quest of the Billionaire Group for 
investments for hundreds of millions of dollars while pleading 
shortage of cash funds with which to meet business demands 
at home; and, 

Hence, also, the ceaseless and ever-increasing flood of good, 
American dollars which is pouring into European business, social 
and gambling centers ; and, 

Hence, also, the inability of the average American business 
man, merchant and tradesman to obtain financial or banking ac- 
commodations on equitable terms and frequently his inability to 
obtain them at all ; and, 

Hence, also, the utter inability of any power in the republic 
except that of the great body politic acting as a unit to cope with 
and overthrow the economic tyranny of "The Interests" — "The 
Money Trust" — The Billionaire Group ; and, 

Hence, also, the arrival of the time when and the advocacy of 
the means whereby the great ninety-five per centum of the people 



22 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

of this country may forever put an end to this unthinkable and 
intolerable Economic Tyranny and substitute for it Economic 
Liberty; and, 

Hence, also, the proposal of the Howell System of National 
Anti-Poverty, not Anti- Wealth, Laws for the bringing about of 
the necessary national, economic reform, the proposed System to 
be based on an Amendment to the Constitution of the United 
States ; the adoption of the same to be followed, forthwith, by the 
passing of the necessary bill by Congress for the inauguration, en- 
forcement and perpetuity of Economic Liberty ; and, 

Hence, also, the submission, in the next few pages, to the seri- 
ous consideration of the reader, of the following: 

First. The proposed Amendment to the Constitution of the 
United States ; 

Second. The substance of the initial legislation by Congress 
after the Amendment is adopted ; 

Third. The Graduated Tax Table, with an explanation show- 
ing the simplicity of the Howell System as based on the 
principle of Arithmetical Progression in National Tax- 
ation. 



PART III 

TEXT OF PROPOSED SYSTEM 
(This Part Should be Studied and Analyzed Paragraph by Paragraph.) 

Amendment to the Constitution of the United States ; 
Initial Bill in Congress; Simplicity of System and Gradu- 
ated or Progressive Tax Table Explained. 



23 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM— III 



Substance of Proposed Amendment to the Constitution of 

the United States 

The two primary objects of this Amendment are declared to 
be: 

First. To secure, as nearly as such a result may be achieved 
by human laws, economic equality, or what may be fitly termed 
Economic Liberty, for all persons subject to, or who may in any 
manner or to any extent enjoy or claim the protection of, either 
in person or property, the laws of the United States of America, 
whether or not such persons may be citizens or aliens, residents 
or non-residents ; 

Second. To provide for a permanent, equitable national system 
of annual taxation, affecting all persons alike, whether citizens 
or aliens, residents or non-residents, for the purpose of raising, 
for public uses, revenues derived from the surplus wealth of its 
possessors. 

For These Purposes, it is provided that : 

1. Congress is hereby empowered and unequivocably instruct- 
ed to enact, within one year from the date of the opening of 
the first regular session after the adoption of this Amendment, a 
system of laws, including adequate penal provisions for its vio- 
lation, attempted violation, evasion or attempted evasion, for the 
inauguration, enforcement and permanent maintenance of a di- 
rect, annual, national, individual, graduated property tax ; 

2. Said system shall be based on the principle of arithmetical 
progression, which principle, as an equitable one. in taxation, is 
hereby adopted as a part of this constitution ; 

3. For the purpose of this direct, annual, national, graduated 
property tax, the unit of taxation shall be One Hundred Thou- 
sand Dollars, and the rate of taxation on the first unit of One 
Hundred Thousand Dollars shall be One-half of One Mill 
(.0005), amounting to Fifty Dollars; the said rate (.0005) of 
taxation shall be increased, in arithemtical progression, on each 
consecutive One Hundred Thousand Dollar unit, and the total 

25 



26 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

tax on each consecutive unit shall be added to the total tax on 
the preceding unit or units, thus progressing arithmetically until 
the said tax rate shall reach One Hundred Per Cent ; 

4. Congress shall fix a uniform basis on which to determine or 
estimate the value, for the purposes of this tax, of all revenue- 
producing property, both real and personal; Provided, however, 
that such income basis shall not be less than three per centum nor 
more than five per centum per annum ; 

5. Congress shall also provide, for the purposes of this tax, 
for an equitable valuation as often as may be necessary of all 
vacant, unimproved and unoccupied land, wheresoever located ; 

6. The tax herein provided for shall be an individual tax, at- 
taching to all the taxable possessions of the natural person as dis- 
tinguished from the artificial person, the corporation. This tax 
shall be assessed and levied against every kind and description of 
taxable property subject to the laws of this republic — lands, cash, 
stocks, bonds, investment securities, and real and personal prop- 
erty — owned by any individual, whether a citizen of the United 
States or an alien, a resident or non-resident. It shall be exclu- 
sively a Federal tax, and is not directly to affect or interfere with 
any existing tax laws or taxes, either Federal, State, County or 
Municipal ; 

7. Congress is empowered to make provision for specific ex- 
emptions of certain classes of property, real or personal, from the 
operation of this direct, national tax, whenever, in its wisdom, it 
shall be deemed best for the public good, but not otherwise. Such 
exemptions shall be only in accordance with common sense and 
justice, and must not defeat nor tend to defeat the objects of this 
national annual tax. All such described attempted legislation 
shall be null and void ; Provided, however, as an intended and 
special advantage to the entire body politic, that all National, 
State, County and Municipal Bonds and Securities, to the total 
face or par value of One Million Dollars of said aggregate hold- 
ings, owned by any one person, shall be wholly exempt from this 
tax ; 

8. In the certain event of a surplus from this tax accumu- 
lating in the United States Treasury above the total amount of 
funds required for the expenses of the Federal Government, in- 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 27 

eluding outlays for public improvements, and such reserves as 
may be wisely maintained for war purposes and other exigencies, 
Congress is not only authorized to make, but is hereby specifically 
charged with the duty of making, adequate provision for the 
distribution of said surplus to the various states and territories 
of the republic immediately upon the existence of the said surplus 
being officially determined. An official determination as to wheth- 
er or not such a surplus does exist shall be made annually. The 
basis on which such distribution shall be made shall be in the 
proportion which the area, assessed valuation and population of 
the respective states and territories bear to one another. The sur- 
plus, once determined and apportioned, shall be paid over to the 
treasuries of the respective states and territories forthwith, for the 
use and benefit of their respective governments and institutions, 
counties and other subdivisions thereof. In the wise use of such 
surplus, Congress is also empowered to reduce, suspend or abro- 
gate such existing taxes, of whatever kind, from time to time, as 
it may deem no longer necessary, practicable or desirable. 

Essential Features of Initial Bill to be Introduced Into 

Congress 

An amendment to the Federal Constitution having been adopt- 
ed embodying substantially the provisions outlined, it would then 
devolve upon Congress to provide the system of laws which it 
will thereby have been not only authorized but instructed to enact. 

No national reform, much less one so important and far- 
reaching in its effects as this proposed new economic system, can 
be put into operation in perfect running order at the outstart. 
Experience will suggest improvements from year to year until 
the system, as an entirety, shall have been as nearly perfected as 
human intelligence and statesmanship can approach perfection in 
human laws. 

However, many of the essential features of the initial bill to 
be introduced into Congress, and to be discussed, thrashed out 
and evolved into legislation, for the purpose of making operative 
and effective the mandate of the body politic as proclaimed in the 
new amendment, would be as follows : 

The bill would provide that, in accordance with the require- 
ments of the amendment, the new, direct, annual, graduated prop- 



28 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

erty tax system would become operative within the usual time for 
Congressional enactments to become effective. 

In view of the fact that this tax would, in due time, yield the 
chief revenue to the Federal Government, the executive head 
of the system should be a cabinet officer. 

The significant fact must not be lost sight of that this tax, 
although universal in its application to individuals, will not become 
operative in the case of any particular individual until he has ac- 
quired a fortune of the value of One Hundred Thousand Dollars. 
This circumstance alone will render the enforcement of this sys- 
tem of taxation far less cumbersome than that of any of the 
ordinary tax systems in vogue in the states, counties and munici- 
palities. 

A code similar to that under which the internal revenue taxes 
are collected would be applicable. The modus operandi would be 
to create collection districts throughout the states and terri- 
tories. Their number and territorial extent would be determined 
by the maximum of convenience and efficiency in enforcing the 
new system of laws. 

All persons within these respective tax districts, known or sup- 
posed to be worth in taxable property not less than One Hundred 
Thousand Dollars, would be required to file with the proper Uni- 
ted States official at the head of the Collection Bureau of the 
district in which they resided official lists or inventories, under 
oath, containing statements in detail of all taxable property, no 
matter where located either within or without the district, which 
is subject to or protected by the laws of this republic. This offi- 
cial would be not only empowered but required, in every case of 
doubt as to the value of the taxable property of any individual 
within the limits of his district, to administer oaths and compel 
the filing of such official lists. These lists would be no more in- 
quisitorial than most of the states at present exact from tax 
payers. They would be made, uniformly, throughout the entire 
country and wherever the laws of the republic are supreme, as of 
a given date annually, and would be delivered to the officials at 
the head of the respective tax districts on or before a given date 
each year. 

These lists, forwarded to the national headquarters of this 
department of the Federal Government at Washington, D.C., 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 29 

would form the basis and supply the data for the levy and col- 
lection of this annual, economic liberty, national tax. 

Severe penalties would be provided for the wilful or fraudulent 
violation of any of the provisions of. this national tax system. 
For the first offense the culprit should be liable to a fine equal to 
fifty per cent of the total amount of his tax, in addition to being 
required to pay such tax. The penalty itself should be paid over 
as a reward or compensation to the person or persons who should 
furnish proof of the offender's guilt. 

For the second offense by the same individual .the money pen- 
alty and its disposal should be the same as provided for the first 
offense, and in addition thereto the offender should be liable to 
imprisonment in some Federal penal institution for not less than 
one year nor more than five years, at the discretion of the trial 
court. 

For the third offense by the same individual, the money pen- 
alty and its disposal should be the same as provided for the first 
and second offenses, and in addition thereto the offender should 
be liable to imprisonment in some Federal penal institution for not 
less than three nor more than ten years, at the discretion of the 
trial court, and be forever deprived of all rights of citizenship and 
as a property holder under the laws of the United States. 

In this last named event, the forfeited property should go to 
those persons who would be the legal heirs of the offender if he 
were to die intestate at the date of his conviction. In the absence 
of such heir or heirs, the forfeited estate should escheat to the 
Federal Government, and become a part of the fund realized 
from this tax system. 

Congress should further provide that any transfer of taxable 
property to any other person or persons for the purpose of evad- 
ing any of the provisions of this law shall operate as an absolute 
and irrevocable transfer of all right, title and interest, owner- 
ship and possession, to said person or persons ; and said person 
or persons should be held guiltless of all offense under this law in 
so becoming the recipients of said property, anc should, on the 
contrary, be entitled to maintain the rights so acquired in any 
court of competent jurisdiction. The person making such trans- 
fer should be subject to the penalties provided for the violation 
of this law. 



30 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

Congress should also provide that in case the owner of prop= 
erty subject to this law were knowingly evading any of its pro- 
visions, any person or persons who would be his heir or heirs at 
law, in the event of his dying intestate, might proceed to enforce 
his or their claims in any court of competent jurisdiction the same 
as if said owner were actually dead and had died intestate. Pend- 
ing the trial of such a cause, the court should be empowered to 
enjoin the disposal of the property involved or any part of it. 
In the event of the charges being duly proven, and the rela- 
tionship established, the heirs should receive their respective in- 
terests by decree of court, subject only to the regular tax under 
this law, and said offender should be subject to the penalties in 
such case made and provided. 

Congress should also provide that, in case of a non-resident 
property holder subject to this law, or one who has no certain, 
fixed or permanent place of residence in any state or territory of 
this republic, said person shall be deemed, for the purposes of 
this law, to be a resident of the National Capital, Washington, 
D.C., where all necessary legal papers and process under this law, 
from the inception of the tax levies, may be served upon said 
person, either personally or by advertisement or publication. 
Such person should be accorded the right, on giving adequate legal 
notice, to appoint a resident representative or agent at said city 
of Washington, D.C. 

Simplicity of Principle of Arithmetical Progression as 
Applied Herein and Table Illustrating Same 

The operation of the law or principle of arithmetical pro- 
gression in taxation will be very simple, and consequently easily 
understood and applied. So far as its enforcement is concerned, 
there is no objection which can be urged against this principle 
that can not be urged, with even greater force, against all present 
methods of taxation. 

Arithmetical progression is merely a progression in which the 
terms increase or decrease by equal ratio, as the numbers, 5, 10, 
15 and 20, by the difference of 5. Or, to use the decimal frac- 
tion .0005 (5/10,000ths of 100%), the rate fixed on each $100,- 
000.00 unit of taxation in the accompanying table, as the ratio 
of increase, then the arithmetical progression is as follows — 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 31 

.0005 ; .001 ; .0015 ; .002, etc., by the difference of 5/10,000ths of 
100%, as shown in the first column of the table. 

Taking any rate per centum as a rate of taxation to begin with 
(.0005%, for instance, as in this table), then, in order to apply the 
principle, a certain amount must be determined on as a basis or 
unit of taxation ; for instance, as in this table, the sum of One 
Hundred Thousand Dollars — $100,000. This sum or unit must 
then become the common divisor of the total taxable wealth of 
each individual tax payer, no matter at what spot on the globe 
he may reside or be located, whose property is assessable under 
the Constitution of the United States. 

It must be borne in mind that it is the amount represented by 
this unit of taxation or common divisor, $100,000.00 in this table, 
on which the tax to be paid is based. The increase in the tax 
on each consecutive unit of $100,000.00 results wholly from the 
increase of the rate of taxation, in this table .0005%, which is in- 
creased in arithmetical progression just as many times as the 
unit of taxation ($100,000.) is contained in the total amount of 
individual wealth to be taxed, until the maximum limit of one 
hundred per cent (100%) is reached. Any rate of taxation, no 
matter what the amount may be, which increases by arithmetical 
progression will sooner or later reach one hundred per cent, and, 
as one might say, automatically set a limit to the total amount of 
wealth possible to be accumulated and retained by any one in- 
dividual. With the rate fixed at .0005%, as in this table, it fol- 
lows that when this rate has been increased, in arithmetical pro- 
gression, two thousand times it has reached one hundred per 
centum. 

This particular table, complete, is just forty times as large 
as the part herewith published. In practical operation, however, 
not more than a twentieth (two pages) of the table would ever 
be required, as the total tax designedly becomes confiscatory be- 
fore the ten-million-dollar total is reached. 

Attention is especially directed to the fact that under this 
System, beginning with the low rate of .0005%, which amounts 
to a tax of only $50.00 on the first $100,000.00 unit of taxation, 
as fixed in this table, the individual tax-payer will have to be quite 
wealthy before the rate and the total tax reach large figures. In 
other words, this principle will operate even when regarded from 



32 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

the standpoint of taxation alone, to say nothing of its restrictive 
and regulative powers over vast, concentrated, predatory wealth, 
to the unqualified benefit not only of the poorer classes of tax- 
payers, but to the manifest good and advantage of all persons 
whose actual, unencumbered private fortunes do not mount too 
high into the millions. It will effectively wipe out, as economic 
units, not only the near-billionaire, the centi-millionaire and the 
deci-millionaire, but the Billionaire Group with its money 
monopoly. 

These economic monstrosities, that have no proper place un- 
der the protection of any government on earth, and much less 
under a republican form of government, must disappear under 
the proposed Howell System of National Laws, and with them 
the unspeakable impositions under existing economic conditions 
inflicted upon ninety-five per cent of the people of this country by 
the Billionaire Group. In view of the certain attainable results, 
the System would become a positive safeguard to society and to 
the institutions of our republic by means of its beneficent in- 
fluence upon the political, business and commercial interests of 
the country — a safeguard which a free people should have not 
the slightest hesitancy in providing. 

THE HOWELL SYSTEM GRADUATED TAX TABLE 



Rate on 


Consecu- 




Total taxable 


Tax on 




Rate of 


each 


tive Nos. 


Unit of 


wealth of the 


each 


Total tax 


the total 


unit 


of units. 


taxation 


individual 


unit 




tax 


.0005 


1 


$100,000 


$100,000 


$50 


$50 


.0005 


.001 


2 


100,000 


200.000 


100 


150 


.00075 


.0015 


3 


100,000 


300,000 


150 


300 


.001 


.002 


4 


100,000 


400,000 


200 


500 


.00125 


.0025 


5 


100,000 


500,000 


250 


750 


.0015 


.003 


6 


100,000 


600,000 


300 


1,050 


.00175 


.0035 


7 


100,000 


700,000 


350 


1,400 


.002 


.004 


8 


100,000 


800,000 


400 


1,800 


.00225 


.0045 


9 


100,000 


900,000 


450 


2,250 


.0025 


.005 


10 


100,000 

From 


1,000,000 
$1,100,000 to 


500 
$2,000,000. 


2,750 


.00275 


.0055 


11 


$100,000 


$1,100,000 


$550 


$3,300 


.003 


.006 


12 


100,000 


1,200,000 


600 


3,900 


.00325 


.0065 


13 


100,000 


1,300,000 


650 


4,550 


.0035 


.007 


14 


100,000 


1,400,000 


700 


5,250 


.00375 


.0075 


15 


100,000 


1,500,000 


750 


6,000 


.004 


.008 


16 


100,000 


1,600,000 


800 


6,800 


.00425 


.0085 


17 


100,000 


1,700,000 


850 


7,650 


.0045 


.009 


18 


100,000 


1,800.000 


900 


8,550 


.00475 


0095 


19 


100,000 


1,900,000 


950 


9,500 


.005 


01 


20 


100,000 


2,000,000 


1,000 


10,500 


.00525 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 



33 



GRADUATED TAX TABLE— Continued 







From 


$2,100,000 to 


$3,000,000. 






Rate on 


Consecu 


. 


Total taxable 


Tax on 




Rate of 


each 


tive No; 


. Unit of 


wealth of the 


each 


Total tax 


the total 


unit 


of units. 


taxation 


individual 


unit 




tax 


.0105 


21 


$100,000 


$2,100,000 


$1,050 


$11,500 


.0055 


.011 


22 


100,000 


2,200,000 


1,100 


12,650 


.00575 


.0115 


23 


100,000 


2,300,000 


1,150 


13,800 


.006 


.012 


24 


100,000 


2,400,000 


1,200 


15,000 


.00675 


.0125 


25 


100,000 


2,500,000 


1,250 


16,250 


.0065 


.013 


26 


100,000 


2,600,000 


1,300 


17,550 


.00675 


.0135 


27 


100,000 


2,700,000 


1,350 


18,900 


.007 


.014 


28 


100,000 


2,800,000 


1,400 


20,300 


.00725 


.0145 


29 


100,000 


2,900,000 


1,450 


21,750 


.0075 


.015 


30 


100,000 

From 


3,000,000 
$3,100,000 to 


1,500 
$4,000,000. 


23,250 


.00775 


.0155 


31 


$100,000 


$3,100,000 


$1,550 


$24,800 


.008 


.016 


32 


100,000 


3,200,000 


1,600 


26,400 


.00825 


.0165 


33 


100,000 


3,300,000 


1,650 


28,050 ' 


.0085 


.017 


34 


100,000 


3,400,000 


1,700 


29,750 


.00875 


.0175 


35 


100,000 


3,500,000 


1,750 


31,500 


.009 


.018 


36 


100,000 


3,600,000 


1,800 


33,300 


.00925 


.0185 


37 


100,000 


3,700,000 


1,850 


35,150 


.0095 


.019 


38 


100,000 


3,800,000 


1,900 


37,050 


.00975 


.0195 


39 


100,000 


3,900,000 


1,950 


39,000 


.01 


.02 


40 


100,000 
From 


4,000,000 
$5,000,000 to 


2,000 
$100,000,000. 


41,000 


.01025 


.025 


50 


$100,000 


$5,000,000 


$2,500 


$63,750 


.01275 


.035 


70 


100,000 


7,000,000 


3,500 


124,250 


.01775 


.05 


100 


100,000 


10,000,000 


5,000 


252,500 


.02525 


.075 


150 


100,000 


15,000,000 


7,500 


566,250 


.03775 


.10 


200 


100,000 


20,000,000 


10,000 


1,005,000 


.05025 


.15 


300 


100,000 


30,000,000 


15,000 


2,257,500 


.07525 


.20 


400 


100,000 


40,000,000 


20,000 


4,010,000 


.10025 


.25 


500 


100,000 


50,000,000 


25,000 


6,262,500 


.12525 


.375 


750 


100,000 


75,000,000 


37,000 


14,081,250 


.18775 


.50 


1000 


100,000 


100,000,000 


50,000 


25,025,000 


.25025 



PART IV 

PERTINENT PARAGRAPHING 

Many Points Touched Upon; Mob Rule of Dollars; 
Moral Turpitude of All Excessive Riches; Misdirected 
Credit and Rewards ; Howell System, Plaintiff vs. Billion- 
aire Group System, Defendant ; How Few May Own All the 
Wealth of Nation ; Underpaid School Teachers and Oth- 
ers ; Wise Builders of the Constitution of the United 
States ; Talk at Bowery Mission ; Class Hatred ; Labor, 
Brains and Capital ; Men Forced from Settled Occupa- 
tions; Economic Tyranny; The Wall Street Game; Spu- 
rious Claims by the Over-Rich of Services to Society; 
Crushing Out Individuality ; Economic Liberty ; Greatest 
Problem Left for Solution by Organized Society; Supreme 
Court Decision in Oil Trust Case; Muck-Rakers; Ellis 
Island's Disgraceful Chapter. 



35 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM— IV 



One bad law is one too many — there can not be too many 
good laws. 

Vested rights have latterly become largely vested wrongs. 

The near-billionaire may be a great financier, but his huge 
fortune is not even presumptive evidence, much less proof, that 
such is the case. 

It is a question of the Howell System vs. the Billionaire 
Group System — unless, of course, you prefer Socialism or Single 
Tax. 

The Howell System simply demands and provides for eco- 
nomic justice to all — the rich and the poor alike. 

National prosperity no longer means wide-spread individual 
prosperity among all classes of worthy citizens. 

Physically, "no man is stronger than his stomach" — financially, 
no man is stronger than his cash resources. 

Independent careers, either in business or in the professions, 
are no longer open to more than a small minority of men. 

Fabulous donations for charitable purposes constitute, at 
once, evidence of splendid philanthropy and proof of economic 
conditions unthinkably infamous. 

The Howell System is constructive, not destructive; for the 
reason that it is restrictive of the evil powers of predatory 
wealth and also regulative, in behalf of the general good, of all 
economic forces. 

In the struggle to-day for even modest financial success, there 
is absolutely no fair test of personal merit. However, men are 
judged solely as though the contrary were the case — by results 
alone. 

A man's moral character is wholly in his own keeping, but, 
under existing economic conditions, his financial or material suc- 
cess is beyond mere personal effort, no matter how persistent, en- 
ergetic, hopeful, able or long continued. 

Opportunities are as thick in this country as flies in July, but 
Available opportunities worth while for the vast majority of men, 
regardless of foresight, energy and ability, are almost as scarce 
as snowballs in hades. 

37 



38 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

A suitable motto for the Billionaire Group would be : Millions 
for Charity — Not One Cent for Economic Justice. The motto of 
The Howell System is : Economic Justice to the Millions — 
Not One Cent More for Tribute to the Billionaire Group. 

Evil economic conditions are as needless and as inexcusable 
as are unsanitary physical conditions. In other words, preventa- 
ble poverty is as senseless and brutal as preventable disease. 
Both poverty and disease are largely preventable under wise laws 
efficiently administered, although neither may be wholly eradi- 
cated. 

Make changes, from time to time, in tariff rates and schedules 
which will increase and not retard or destroy prosperity. This 
country can not yet afford to adopt free trade. The object should 
be to bring about, by means of higher wages, better salaries and 
wider profit-sharing among the great masses of the people, a fair 
economic distribution of prosperity. 

Material Success Equations: Mental Inferiority, Plus Loaf- 
ing, Plus Gambling, Plus Cash, Equal Financial Success Nine 
Times out of Ten. Superiority, Plus Energy, Plus Intense Ap- 
plication, Plus Perfect Habits, Plus Foresight, Minus Cash, Equal 
Financial Failure Nine Times out of Ten. 

In the striving for material success, the only test question 
which any man who has not attained it is required to ask himself, 
or that any other person or society itself has any right to ask 
him, is this one: "Has he, all things considered, done his best?" 
Not, "Can he look back through the years of faithful effort and 
see where he has made mistakes?" Nor yet the question: "Why 
did he not seize opportunities which were as unavailable to him, 
because of the lack of cash with which to make them available, 
as though they never had existed?" 

The man or group of men who controls the cash and quick 
assets of a country, thereby becoming the worst of all evil trusts, 
the Money Trust, exercises an economic tyranny over the people 
at large which is worse than can be any mere political tyranny. 
The people would better be deprived of the right to vote and of 
all other political rights, and yet be accorded Available oppor- 
tunities for employment or independent careers at fair economic 
returns in the form of wages or profits, than to be possessed of 
the former and deprived of the latter. But, far better is it to 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 39 

possess, as the people of this republic have it in their power to 
enjoy, both political liberty and Economic Liberty. 

Mob Rule Intolerable 

Mob Rule, in other words Lawless Rule, is intolerable, whether 
it be the Mob Rule of Men or the Mob Rule of Dollars. No such 
a thing as the Mob Rule of Dollars, do you say? Then what do 
you term the Rule of Dollars which has dominated, with relent- 
less greed, the transportation situation in Greater Xew York, 
spreading loss and ruin broadcast among the small investors while 
creating a goodly number of millionaires and deci-millionaires? 
And, what is it that has held up for years the badly needed im- 
provements and extensions ? Can any person or institution get the 
necessary cash with which to proceed with the work, unless the 
Billionaire Group is placated to the tune of many millions? 
Possibly it may be just "business," or "high finance," in the esti- 
mation of some. From my point of view it is simply a case of the 
Mob Rule of Dollars. And, the treatment which Greater New 
York has received for years from the Billionaire Group, and 
which it will continue to receive, is a perfect example of what the 
people at large, throughout the entire country, have been receiving 
in relation to all their vast industrial and financial interests. In 
other words, the people — the more than ninety per cent — have been 
shamelessly exploited to an extent almost unthinkable ; repeatedly 
worked to a frazzle. And they will continue to be so exploited 
until they, the people, who alone are powerful enough to overcome 
the economic supremacy of the Billionaire Group, subjugate it by 
the enactment of adequate national laws. These assertions are 
significantly borne out, and this prediction justified, by the recent 
findings and decisions in the cases against the Standard Oil and 
the Tobacco Trusts, and by the disclosures relating to the panic 
of 1907. And these vicious results are the product of the Mob 
Rule of Dollars. 

The Moral Turpitude of All Excessive Riches 

The man who proclaims that he is in favor of a real improve- 
ment in economic conditions, and who asserts also that he is in 
favor of the accumulation of private fortunes without limit, even 
though they run into the hundreds of millions of dollars, "so long 



40 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

as they are acquired honestly" ( ?), speaks an utterly meaningless 
jargon. If such a man were open to conviction as to the moral 
turpitude inseparably associated with all such excessive accumu- 
lations, to say nothing of the legal dishonesty by which many of 
them are acquired, the findings of fact, and the recent decisions 
by the United States Supreme Court, in the dissolution cases 
against the Standard Oil and Tobacco Trusts, ought to clear his 
mental vision sufficiently to enable him to see the truth, and 
that, too, without the aid of a kerosene lamp. Indeed, it is 

"So clear, shining and so evident, 
That it will glimmer through a blind man's eye." 

Misdirected Credit and Rewards 

The eager defenders of existing economic conditions and of 
swollen private fortunes, chiefly the product of the toil of mil- 
lions of men, women and children deprived of their proper, eco- 
nomic share, are not content with trying to justify such things 
on moral and legal grounds. They must also credit to the bene- 
ficiaries who have seized these excessive fortunes the reduction in 
the cost of many commodities, and vast improvements and 
economies in business enterprises, as illustrated by cheaper kero- 
sene oil and the Standard Oil. Company, when, as a matter of fact, 
those results must be credited to the inventive genius of many 
minds and to the aggregate energy and spirit of the age. It is a 
well known fact that real inventors have seldom received adequate 
reward, many of them none at all, and that the remains of some 
rest in paupers' graves. And, under existing economic conditions, 
Society not only offers but pays its greatest premiums for that 
sort of injustice. 

The Howell System, 

Plaintiff, 
vs. 
The Billionaire Group System, 

Defendant. 

Plaintiff: The Contention and Brief of the Plaintiff are 
based on the Nation's demand, in behalf of All Citizens, for an 
Open Field of Opportunity and Endeavor. It is not a mere ques- 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 41 

tion of Free Trade or Tariff, nor of any one or more of scores 
of other important current political and economic issues. It is a 
question of Economic' Liberty, and as fundamental as was the 
question of Political Liberty in 1776. 

The Plaintiff further demands a Fair Fighting Chance for all 
Worthy, Industrious Citizens to succeed financially to the extent, 
at least, of enabling them to pass their lives in comfort, provide 
suitably for all Children and Worthy Dependents, and to acquire 
a Competency for Old Age. 

The Plaintiff further demands the Preservation of Sane In- 
dividualism and the Encouragement of the Original Initiative 
among the People at Large, as against the crushing out of these 
qualities under existing economic conditions. 



Defendant: The Contention and Brief of the Defendant 
are based on the demand, in behalf of the Few, that they be per- 
mitted to Monopolize All Natural Resources, all Currency, Bank- 
ing and Transportation Facilities, and all Other Opportunities 
of Importance and Great Value. 

The Defendant further demands the right to Enforce a Rela- 
tively Increasing Average Cost of Living and a Relatively De- 
creasing Average Rate of Wages, Salaries, Compensation and 
Profits of whatsoever nature Earned by or Accruing to the Great 
Body of the People ; and the right to Enforce the Progressive 
Elimination of Small Business Enterprises, and of All Modest, 
Independent, Personal Careers in the Circles of Trade and Fi- 
nance. 

And all these things the Defendant demands, in the Names of 
Vested Rights and Philanthropy, in order that A Few May Con- 
tinue to Dominate the Social, the Industrial and the Financial 
Affairs of the Republic of the United States. 

Man Must Think in Continents and in Cycles 

Man must think of his home, of his State, of his Country, 
but, in studying the great race problems, he must think in con- 
tinents. He must think of the present and of the immediate 
future, but in contemplating the great problems of human needs, 
welfare and progress, man must think in cycles. To enable man 
thus to think, his mental vision must not be impaired by the dollar 



42 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

mark, or his look into the future cut off by mountains of in- 
dividual wealth whose apexes pierce and pollute the very heavens. 

How Few May Own All Wealth 

The latest estimates place the total wealth of the United States, 
including all classes of real and personal assets, at One Hundred 
and Twenty-five Billions of Dollars— $125,000,000,000. 

It is asserted by some that the country has at least one citizen 
who is worth a billion dollars, or a 125th part of the total wealth 
of the nation. Be that as it may, there is no doubt that there are 
a number of citizens each one of whose private fortunes pass the 
One Hundred Million mark, and it is certain that there are a good- 
ly number of deci-millionaires. 

Contrary to the favorite fallacy proclaimed by the defenders 
of swollen fortunes, to the effect that they are usually dissipated 
by the second or third generation, they nearly always increase 
rapidly and with augmented momentum, as if by their own weight 
and cohesive power, like a snowball rolling down hill. The fol- 
lowing little table shows at a glance into how few hands the vast 
wealth of the country, all of it at least which is not required for 
the bare subsistence of the inhabitants of the land, will pass in due 
time unless a limit shall" be placed on the accumulation of in- 
dividual fortunes : 

each would own all. 



125 


Owners 


WO 


rth 


$1,000,000,000 


250 


" 




* 


500,000,000 


500 


« 




u 


250,000,000 


625 


a 




t 


200.000,000 


1,250 


a 




it 


100,000,000 


2,500 


" 




t 


50,000,000 


5,000 


" 




( 


25,000,000 


12,500 


" 




t 


10,000,000 


25,000 


11 




( 


5,000,000 


125,000 


it 




i 


1,000,000 



School Teachers and Others 
The public school teachers of this republic, considering their 
faithfulness; high order of ability; special training and qualifi- 
cations, and the indispensable service demanded of and performed 
by them, are probably the poorest paid, as a class, of any of the 
wage- or salary-earning classes in the United States. When the 
near-billionaire and the centi-millionaire so-called Captains of In- 
dustry are required, under the Howell System of National Laws, 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 43 

to pay into the privy coffer of the State a good, big share of 
their unearned accumulations, then the public school teachers of 
the land, to say nothing of all other classes of public servants and 
the industrial, wealth-producing armies of the mammoth corpo- 
rations of the country, will begin to "come into their own." 

Wise Builders of the Constitution 

The bed-rock foundation of all our rights in this greatest of 
all republics is the Constitution of the United States. The wise 
builders of the Federal Constitution, however, not only pro- 
vided for Political Liberty and Religious Liberty, but they made 
adequate provision for amending the Constitution whenever it 
might become necessary for the public good. It is a reasonable 
contention although a speculative one, that, if the makers of the 
Constitution were among us to-day, they would be leaders in the 
movement for the amendment on which to found Economic 
Liberty. 

From a Talk at the Bowery Mission 
(Friday Evening, February 24, 1911) 

There is a beautiful side to this unique institution known, at 
home and abroad, as the Bowery Mission, and located at the very 
edge of the section of Greater New York where the population 
is the most dense and where poverty is most prevalent and most 
appalling. 

The devotion of a noble woman like "Mother" Bird is in itself 
a holy inspiration. And the value of such leaders, teachers and 
helpers as Dr. Hallimond and his assistants is not to be meas- 
ured in dollars, and no words of praise are adequate to proclaim 
their just deserts. 

The dark, pitiful and exasperating side of such an institution 
is its imperative, ever-present and ever-growing necessity, and 
the fact that its very necessity constitutes, against organized soci- 
ety and our boasted civilization of the Twentieth Century, a 
most terrible indictment. And, yet, the Bowery Mission is but 
one of scores of institutions and mediums for dispensing charity 
in this great city and state. Thirty-five millions of dollars were 
expended in this state last year in public and quasi-public chari- 
ties. Even that vast sum does not include additional millions dis- 



44 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

pensed privately. What noble traits of human nature such lavish 
benefactions reveal ! What shame to organized society that eco- 
nomic conditions so evil and debasing are permitted to exist! 

These nightly gatherings, at the Bowery Mission, of the tem- 
porarily down and out army represent, not the lowest but the 
weakest strata of organized society. Numerically, they represent 
overwhelmingly the strongest human strata. 

Class Hatred 

Class hatred is constantly being engendered, both uncon- 
sciously and deliberately, on the part of the very rich, not only 
by the false standards of merit and ambition which they set up 
but by the arrogance of their habitual attitude towards and their 
utterances respecting the financially unsuccessful and unfortunate. 
They habitually make the lack of financial success strictly a per- 
sonal matter, whereas in nine cases out of ten it is wholly eco- 
nomic. The sentiment is that he who fails to accumulate at least 
a comfortable fortune does not succeed simply because he is per- 
sonally unworthy — a drunkard; a spendthrift; a loafer, or an in- 
competent of some type or other for which he is personally to 
blame. 

The head of one of the leading colleges of the country some 
time ago publicly asserted, in substance, that the trouble with 
the laboring classes is that they are too lazy to work and too in- 
temperate to save. And, yet, this is the greatest wealth producing 
country in the world, and wealth is produced by labor. Strange 
record, isn't it, to be made by a nation of loafers and drunkards? 

Labor, Brains and Capital 

As society is now constituted there are three forces engaged, 
directly and indirectly, in the production of wealth, namely : 

First. Labor, possessing a high average of intelligence and 
skill ; 

Second. Brains, in professional and administrative capacities ; 

Third. Capital, which is absolutely helpless and useless so far 
as increase is concerned without the aid of labor although it fre- 
quently prospers and grows amazingly without the aid of brains. 
Still, capital, under existing conditions, absolutely dominates and 
tyrannizes over both labor and brains. 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 45 

Enforced Displacement from Settled Occupations 

One of the most glaring evils resulting from the highly arti- 
ficial economic conditions of the day, aggravated by the manipula- 
tions of the Billionaire Group, is the enforced displacement an- 
nually of millions of worthy, capable men from occupations to 
which they have become adapted and compelling them to seek new 
avenues of activity for their admitted abilities and proven energies. 

In the case of a vast majority of such enforced changes 
failure, or at best indifferent success, is as inevitable as it is bru- 
tally unjust. But society, taking its cue from the habitually in- 
different or captious attitude of the Billionaire Group and its 
organs of publicity, unjustly judges and condemns the "failure" 
as though to him had been available all the advantages and op- 
portunities of the most favored and richest of men. 

Economic Tyranny 
Economic tyranny, through a thousand channels, like a current 
of electricity of a million volts, works its merciless purposes ir- 
resistibly through the entire body politic. And it works as silently 
and intangibly as the swiftly speeding air waves wing their wire- 
less messages from ocean to ocean and from continent to continent. 
It touches the home and life of every human being, waking or 
sleeping, every minute of time from the cradle to the grave, and 
is worse than any other form of tyranny. 

The Wall Street Game 

The complex, so-called Wall Street game, from the big fel- 
lows operating through the more or less lawless New York Stock 
Exchange, to the police-defying crap-shooting youngsters in 
New Street, is played with as delicate a sense of honor by many 
of the gamesters, big and little, as ever marked the conduct of 
Chevalier Bayard. 

On the other hand, Wall Street's contingent of pretentious and 
unpretentious fakers is large, able and energetic. The members 
classify all the way up (or down) from the curb-stone broker, 
without "a local habitation or a name," to the millionaire with 
spacious, richly furnished offices in a skyscraper ; membership in 
the leading clubs, and a prominent pew in some swell Fifth Ave- 
nue church. 



46 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

Their part of the Wall Street game is to graft anything from 
a postage stamp to a bank or a steamship line. Even an item of 
some two thousand dollars has been known to be a sufficient 
temptation to induce members of the pretentious faction to betray 
friendship and to dishonor written and verbal agreements and 
promises. Also, so cleverly to manage the affair that the con- 
fiding and unsuspecting Mr. Easy Mark not only emerged from 
the transaction minus his just, stipulated dues, but with little or 
no standing in court. And the prevailing sentiment of the Wall 
Street district seems to be that the successful faker is a clever 
chap, entitled to a certain degree of admiration, and that Easy 
Mark is a fool who should be frowned upon if not kicked out of 
the precinct. 

Spurious Claims of Services to Society 
One of the favorite claims advanced in justification of swollen 
fortunes is that the possessors render to society services which en- 
title them to their excessive riches. No service to society, no mat- 
ter how great, can justify an unjust and uneconomic individual 
appropriation of wealth. The truth is, however, that the men and 
women who have performed the greatest services for humanity 
have been, as a rule, very poorly rewarded in a material way, the 
majority of them living and dying poor. 

As to services rendered to society by the very rich, in most 
instances they have been labors of the imagination. Nothing more 
laborious, in fact, than would be the brushing of imaginary cob- 
webs off of moonbeams with an imaginary feather duster. LIow- 
ever, the majority of them seem to imagine that their imaginary 
services constitute a sufficient justification for their methods, their 
accumulations and their defense of existing economic conditions. 

The Crushing Out of Individuality 
The defenders of the existing order of affairs economic express 
much concern over the fear that the limitation of private fortunes 
within sane and reasonable bounds will destroy individuality. The 
distorted and forbidding individualism of the centi-millionaire and 
his like seems to be the only type which appeals to their artistic 
taste and sense of justice. It is of no significance to them that the 
growth of a single centi-millionaire means the crushing out of the 
individuality of millions of worthy human beings. 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 47 

Economic Liberty 

Economic Liberty means, to speak in common parlance, an 
open field of opportunity and endeavor for everybody in the 
every-day industrial and financial affairs of life. It means Avail- 
able Opportunities and the Maintainable Right for the worthy and 
industrious, in all needful occupations, to succeed financially. It 
means that these shall be the unquestioned and inviolable privi- 
leges, under the supreme law of the land, of all human beings 
alike, in their efforts to win material success — something more 
than a bare subsistence — a competency. 

In other words, it means the enactment and enforcement of 
national laws for the elimination of the Billionaire Group as an 
economic unit, and also the regulation of the sources, and of the 
production, and of the distribution of wealth in a manner just to 
all, or as nearly so as human government will permit. The adop- 
tion of the Howell System of National Laws will effect infinite 
improvement in economic conditions and it would involve abso- 
lutely no change in our form of government. 

Economic Liberty is the right as it is the necessity of every 
man, woman and child ; the right of every home ; of every State ; 
of every Nation and every civilized race, and the uncivilized 
peoples of the earth should be shielded and uplifted by its benefi- 
cent, world-wide sway of universal justice. As a sociological 
question or issue, it is not merely paramount in this republic ; it 
is fundamentally and imperiously alone as the one greatest prob- 
lem yet remaining for solution by organized society. And, what- 
ever the final solution may be, the beginning must be the limitation, 
in this republic, of the legal right to accumulate private fortunes 
so as to bring them within sane and reasonable bounds. 

Supreme Court Decisions in Oil and Tobacco Trust 

Cases 
It is doubtful if the decisions of the United States Supreme 
Court, in the Standard Oil and Tobacco Trust cases, will even 
seriously annoy the very respectable and eminent centi- and deci- 
millionaire citizens who have been the greatest offenders in shap- 
ing the affairs of those mammoth concerns and who are the great- 
est beneficiaries of the disreputable and unlawful methods em- 
ployed. The ties which bind together the constituent companies 



48 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

will have to be loosened up a little here and there, new sets of 
certificates and legal forms prepared, and sundry other details 
looked after with more or less care, but these things will be all 
attended to by skilful, well-paid lawyers. Otherwise, things will 
run along, thank you, in the even tenor of their way, the divi- 
dends will increase, and the near-billionaire, the centi-millionaire 
and the deci-millionaire will continue to receive into their capa- 
cious private coffers their ever-swelling flood of wealth. 

Thus will this swollen-fortune, wealth-insanity farce and 
human tragedy continue to hold the boards in the drama of our 
national life until the Constitution of the United States is so 
amended as to permit the enactment of adequate laws. They 
must, necessarily, be national laws which will reach over, and be- 
yond and behind, in spite of technicalities and the ablest lawyers, 
and seize and hold the specific individuals responsible for all the 
evil and injustice that is done in the name of those artificial per- 
sons, the corporations. I have for twenty-five years been preach- 
ing the old truism that ''Guilt is Personal" in support of my ad- 
vocacy of my proposed national System of Laws as set forth in 
Part III of this pamphlet. That System once in force, the Su- 
preme Court will have the power to render decisions which even 
the individual, economic monstrosity of the centi-millionaire type 
will have to obey at once and for all time. Until then, neither 
Congress, legislatures nor courts can effectively cope with the 
centi-millionaire type and the Billionaire Group. 

Muck-Rakers 

Now that the United Supreme Court, in the Standard Oil and 
Tobacco cases, has aligned itself along with the "muck-rakers" in 
the opinion that the methods pursued by the richly eminent gen- 
tlemen who have controlled these Trusts have been disreputable 
and in violation of law, it is consistently in order for the Bil- 
lionaire Group organs of publicity to classify the members of that 
Court as muck-rakers. 

Ellis Island's Disgraceful Chapter 

One of the most disgraceful chapters to be found in the 
history of any so-called civilized country, Russia not excepted, has 
been written of late (1910-1911) into the history of our republic 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 49 

at Ellis Island. That little island in New York harbor is the 
Gate of Entry for most of the immigrants coming into the United 
States — the hundreds of thousands, annually, of worthy, ambitious, 
energetic, hopeful and oppressed denizens of the Old World who 
seek to improve their lot in this land of the free. Of all this tide 
of immigration a small percentage is made up of undesirables of 
one kind and another, criminal and otherwise, who should be re- 
fused admission into this country. 

When a broad, American official spirit presides over Ellis 
Island it is felt by the subordinates, and substantial justice is 
meted out to all seeking entry. But when, as in these latter days, 
the policy in force is harsh and often brutal, the injustice and 
inexcusable misery inflicted on worthy human beings, who are 
helpless in the legal clutches of the Government, become a na- 
tional scandal and disgrace. 

While such a policy prevails, the light on Bartholdi's noble, 
300- foot Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World, but little more 
than a stone's throw from Ellis Island, should be extinguished, 
the torch itself hooded, and the Statue draped in mourning. Then 
a suitable Statue to erect on Ellis Island would be that of Nemesis, 
the Goddess of Vengeance. 

As the New York Evening Journal, among other things, re- 
cently said editorially : 

"Three judges of the United States Court have condemned 
from the bench most sharply the star chamber methods of our 
immigration department. Callous men, made brutal and indif- 
ferent by constant association with grief, think nothing of sepa- 
rating mothers and children, husbands and wives, or of sending 
back an old father or mother on the merest pretext. . . . Any one 
of a number of petty subordinates has the power to send them 
back whence they came. And they leave, broken hearted and 
ruined financially. Disease must be kept out of this country, 
and crime must be kept out. But the crime should be proved, 
and the disease should be apparent and dangerous. 

"The stream of immigration is a life-giving stream of the 

greatest value to our nation. Our indebtedness to the oLd lands, 

to the men and women that have the courage and enterprise to 

leave them and come here, is very great. It is a shameful return 

4 



50 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

for all their hardihood that greets so many of them when they 
first arrive in this country." 

The majority of rejections of worthy applicants are made on 
the pretext that they may become public charges. In one instance, 
to illustrate, a young German, about twenty-five, an excellent type 
of man, well dressed and refined in manners, had some trouble 
with his eyes when a child of about seven. The ailment was so 
completely cured that it not only never returned but he never had 
to use glasses for any purpose, and had learned and followed the 
trade of carpenter. However, it was brought out during the star- 
chamber examination that he had not passed the severe test for 
perfect vision required for military service in the German army. 
For this reason alone he was refused admission on the pretext that 
there was a remote possibility that he might some day become a 
public charge. On such a pretense, even a Theodore Roosevelt 
would be rejected. One more evidence of Dollar Blindness; an- 
other manifestation of Dollar Brutality. 



PART V 

NOTABLE UTTERANCES BY NOTABLES— COMMENTS 

Roosevelt on Swollen Fortunes ; Rev. Peters on Bloated 
Fortunes; Governor Foss Says Liberties and Rights in 
Peril; "The Easiest Way" in Which to Incite Class 
Hatred; Fears of J. Pierpont Morgan Justify Far Greater 
Fears on Part of People ; Ryan Mentions Young Men Soon 
to Control Money of the Country; Marshall on Why 
Plenty and Paucity Go Hand in Hand; President Parker 
on Dollar Blindness; Noted Cleric, Rabbi Wise, on Ethics 
of Business ; Governor Wilson on the Money Monopoly ; 
Hampton's Magazine on the Money Power; Roosevelt, Per- 
kins and New York World ; Bryan's Crown of Thorns and 
Cross of Gold ; Hearst, Roosevelt and Bryan ; The Money 
Trust and Lawson, Wall Street Journal, New York World 
and Wilson ; New York World Sound in Theory — How 
About Practice?; Senator Cummings on Danger at Hand; 
Christ's Teachings as to Riches. 



51 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM— V 



Roosevelt on Swollen Fortunes 

Time and again in his great public career, has Theodore 
Roosevelt raised his voice in favor of fair play in all the indus- 
trial, business and financial affairs of every-day life. During a 
public address, in April, 1906, he said: "Materially, we must 
try to secure a broader economic opportanity for all men, so that 
each shall have a better chance to show the stuff of which he is 
made. . . . As a matter of personal conviction and without pre- 
tending to discuss the details or formulate the system, I feel that 
we shall ultimately have to consider the adoption of some such 
scheme as that of a progressive tax on all fortunes, beyond a cer- 
tain limit, either given in life or devised or bequeathed upon death 
to any individual, . . . the tax, of course, to be imposed by the na- 
tional and not by the state government. Such tax should, of 
course, be aimed merely at the inheritance or transmission in their 
entirety of those fortunes swollen beyond all healthy limits." 

Still, in advocating the application of a progressive tax to in- 
heritances only, or at the time of the transmission of a vast for- 
tune in bulk, it would seem that the President overlooked the most 
important part of his declaration to the effect that "we must try 
to secure a broader economic opportunity for all men." No such 
"broader economic opportunity for all men" can possibly be 
secured except under some system of national laws by which "for- 
tunes swollen beyond all healthy limits" may be legally prevented 
from attaining unhealthy and bloated proportions. Nine-tenths of 
the evils and infamies inseparably associated with the possession 
of monstrous private fortunes are not incident to either their mere 
size or their transmission, but to the methods of their accumula- 
tion and the flagrant uneconomic distribution of wealth as it is 
produced. 

"Bloated Fortunes and Yet Majority in Want" 

"We are in a condition in this country," lately proclaimed Rev. 
John F. Peters, rector of St. Michael's Episcopal Church, New 
York City, "where many strong men are seizing each what he may 
for himself, with or without law, massing enormous fortunes, 

53 



54 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

grasping huge areas of lands, forests, mines, controlling the lines 
of transportation. We Have Bloated Fortunes, an immense power 
amassed in the hands of a relatively few, and the Enormous Ma- 
jority Living on the Edge of Want. The voice and the wish of the 
men of large means are potent in the management of the affairs of 
the church, because we need money. . . . To a very considerable 
extent the church finds itself allied with the money interests. Pre- 
cisely in proportion as this is the case has the church been aliena- 
ted from the laboring masses." 

Doubtless, as an American citizen, Dr. Peters is a believer in 
the institutions of Political Liberty and Religious Liberty vouch- 
safed to us by the laws of our republic. As a type of the broad- 
minded minister of the Gospel, is he equally in favor of Economic 
Liberty? 

"Liberty and Rights of All Citizens in Peril" 

"The nation is facing a crisis," lately asserted Governor Foss, 
of Massachusetts, "as great as the Civil War. Now the liberties 
of no one race are at stake, but the liberty and rights of all the 
citizens are in peril." 

The Easiest Way 

"The easiest way for the American people to have prosperity 
is by making themselves worthy of it." 

Ah ! The Oracle "have spoke." The secret of prosperity get- 
ting and having is at last revealed, and it is promulgated, "free, 
gratis and for nothing," for the benefit of the "American people," 
the great majority of whom are not prosperous. They are not 
prosperous simply because they are not worthy. If they were 
worthy they could not fail to be prosperous, and if they were pros- 
perous it would be proof conclusive that they are worthy. Cita- 
tions illustrating this great truth, recent decisions of the United 
States Supreme Court in the dissolution cases against the Stand- 
ard Oil and Tobacco Trusts. Being incomprehensibly rich (pros- 
perous), the "big men" who have been running these concerns il- 
legally must be incomprehensibly worthy. 

The words of wisdom and justice first above quoted are from 
one of the very prosperous New York weekly publications. It is 
such a partisan of the centi-millionaire type of citizen and his 
methods that it goes fairly blind with rage at the thought of a 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 55 

"Muck-Raker" and grovels in its devotion to "The Interests." 
Not being of the people, the author of that gracious message to the 
"American people" plainly tells them, inferentially, that they are 
unworthy to be prosperous, and that "the easiest way for them 
to have prosperity is to proceed to make themselves worthy of it." 
Simple, isn't it? The wheels of the Oracle's think factory 
seem to run somewhat after this fashion : "I am prosperous, I 
am worthy; prosperous, worthy, worthy, prosperous. If all the 
American people were worthy, like I am, they, too, would all be 
prosperous. Can anything be more logical, just, humane or con- 
vincing? Certainly not. No question of economics or of justice 
or of fair-play is involved. It is purely a personal matter. And 
all you 'American people' who dare to assert that you are not 
prosperous for any other reason than that you are unworthy are 
muck-rakers and inciters of class hatred. Be just and broad- 
minded, as I am, and you will say, do, write and publish noth- 
ing that will be displeasing to the very rich. Simply bear in mind 
that, if you were worthy, you would be prosperous. I weep to 
think of the deluge of unworthiness which has swamped the vast 
majority of the American people. If all could only be as worthy 
as I — ah then, how universal would be the prosperity of the Amer- 
ican people ! It is the easiest way. Pardon these tears. Please 
pardon a billion or so more tears !" Yes, it is the easiest way 
to stir up class hatred — that sort of impudence. 

The Fears of J. Pierpont Morgan 

Said Mr. Morgan to Governor Hughes, as recently quoted in 
the public press: "As long as the Equitable Life Assurance So- 
ciety, with its hundreds of millions of dollars, remains in Wall 
Street, it is a menace to my fortune, and it will be a menace to the 
fortune of my- son and my son's son." 

If a fund of Five Hundred Million Dollars, belonging to an 
institution which is under more or less stringent legal restrictions 
and constant public scrutiny, threatens the vast fortune and finan- 
cial power of one of the really great financiers of the world, J. 
Pierpont Morgan, what danger then must exist to all moderate 
fortunes from this same source? And then think of the vastly 
greater danger which threatens all moderate fortunes and the gen- 
eral good of the people at large from a centralized fund estimated 



56 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

at Two Billions of Dollars — four times the size of the Equitable 
fund — in the chain of banks dominated by Mr. Morgan! But, 
even all this is the lesser part of the entire evil. There is yet to be 
taken into account the still greater aggregate fund controlled by 
the irresponsible Billionaire Group of national exploiters. And, 
yet, we Americans are a people politically free. Economic serfs, 
ninety-nine out of every hundred of us. Is there anything in the 
whole history of practical, human affairs more absurdly and 
more tragically incongruous? 

Wall Street Men Already Selected to Control 

Thomas Fortune Ryan, one of the "Wise" men of Wall Street, 
some months ago designated, in a published interview which I 
never have seen refuted, some half dozen or so young men who 
are, in due time, to come into control of the money of this coun- 
try. Mr. Ryan no doubt spoke substantially the truth, unless, 
perchance, the people themselves some day conclude to exercise 
their political rights and decisive power by bringing about the 
necessary national legislation for the elimination of the centi- 
millionaire, and for putting an end to the sway of the Billionaire 
Group. 

Why Plenty and Paucity Go Hand in Hand 

W. V. Marshall in his learned treatise, in book form, on "Com- 
petition," discussing the productive energies of the people under 
existing evil economic conditions, says : 

"Overproduction always stands opposite to destitution. This 
is because the two have a common average. Deprive eighty mil- 
lion people of a proportionate share of their earnings, and there 
will be heard the complaint of indigency. Turn this share into 
the possession of one hundred thousand citizens, and there will 
be heard the complaint of surplus. But the passing of the earn- 
ings out of the hands of one set into the hands of another is 
but a single operation. That is why plenty and paucity may go 
hand in hand ; why surplus may exist by the side of pressing want. 
But in what consists the overproduction? 

"There is in possession of the exactors at the close of a sea- 
son's operations, retained of their own originating, products 
which they would not have retained had they parted with their 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 57 

wares at earned valuation ; with them of the people's originating, 
products they would not have acquired had they accepted the 
people's wares at earned valuation ; debt obligations surrendered 
by the people to bridge deficits which their lack of compensation 
created, and left them with no means to provide for. Each sea- 
son widens the breach, surfeits the exactors with more excess, 
inflicts the masses with greater privation. 

"The thoughtless may imagine that the way to mitigate the 
effects of overproduction is to increase the toil and produce more 
to sell. That would only intensify the ill effect. In their dealings 
with the masses, the monopolists dictate the terms both ways — fix 
what they charge and what they pay. The consequence is such a 
rate of compensation as to create a. perpetual difference in their 
favor. The more the masses toil to earn and overcome this dif- 
ference, the more must they deal with the exactors, and the larger 
and the faster, therefore, do they make the difference grow. Un- 
dertaking to reduce it by extra energy in production is as im- 
possible as would be the feat of liquidating continued expenditure 
of ten dollars per week with receipts of but eight dollars a week." 

Mr. Marshall, whose address is Berlin, Pennsylvania, has re- 
cently published another volume, entitled "A Curb to Predatory 
Wealth." Both of these books should be read by all who are 
interested in the problem of improving economic conditions, and 
every sane, adult human being ought to be interested. Mr. Mar- 
shall's proposed application of the principle of graduated proper- 
ty taxation differentiates materially in some respects from the 
Howell System method. He would apply it to the artificial per- 
son, the incorporated trust, and through the legislatures of the re- 
spective states. I aim directly at the human, economic monstrosi- 
ty, the centi-millionaire and his type, and the intolerable industrial 
and financial evils which he personifies. I would oppose, as im- 
practicable, the adoption of the Howell System by any other 
than the National Government. That does not mean that I am 
opposed to the application of the principle to corporations, al- 
though I do believe that the centi-millionaire type of economic 
unit and the Billionaire Group must be eliminated before ef- 
fective legislation, either state or national, can be passed and 
enforced for the adequate regulation of those stupendous artificial 
economic units, the Trusts. 



58 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

Mr. Marshall is also the founder of the National Square 
Deal Club, which already has its ramifications throughout the 
country. At the last session of the California Legislature, a 
graduated tax resolution passed the Senate without a dissenting 
vote. Senator Cartwright, of Fresno, supported the resolution 
by a speech five hundred copies of which, together with the reso- 
lution, were ordered printed and distributed by the Senate. No 
similar action was ever before taken by that body. 

President Parker on Dollar Blindness 

At the last session of the Southern Commercial Congress, 
President John M. Parker, of New Orleans, remarked : "Dollar 
blindness threatens to become a national curse, withering many 
desirable traits of character and warping others. Gold is rapidly 
becoming the god of the nation, and by many wealth is held above 
character. . . . The time is ripe for some equitable basis of tax- 
ation by which vast fortunes may not be transmitted to some 
future generation, when the fool or the knave may use them to 
the misery of humanity." 

How about putting a stop to the merciless methods of accu- 
mulating fortunes of hundreds of millions by single individuals, 
and the injustice and human misery involved? 

Noted Cleric, Rabbi Wise, On Ethics of Business 

Said Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, of New York, in a public ad- 
dress : "Man is not to live for business, though business be 
needed to enable man to live. . . . The ethics of business in- 
volves a vast, comprehensive and ever- widening sphere of moral 
law. It is not only the barter side of business that must be mor- 
al, but the processes of creation and production, distribution and 
consumption need to be ethicized. He vehemently opposes all that 
hideous materialism that makes life cheaper than dividends, that 
fails to protect workmen from deadly machinery, that wrings the 
life out of little children in huge factories, and ruthlessly turns 
the ambition of competitors into despair, that builds up business 
success at the expense of justice and love." 

Governor Wilson on the Money Monopoly 
In a public address recently, at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 59 

Hon. Woodrow Wilson, Governor of New Jersey, said, among 
other things : 

"The great monopoly in this country is the money monopoly. 
So long as that exists our old variety and freedom and individual 
energy of development are out of the question. A great indus- 
trial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system 
of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, 
and all our activities are in the hands of a few men who, even if 
their action be honest and intended for the public interest, are 
necessarily concentrated upon the great undertakings in which 
their own money is involved, and who necessarily, by every reason 
of their own limitations, chill and check and destroy genuine eco- 
nomic freedom. This is the greatest question of all, and to this 
statesmen must address themselves with an earnest determination 
to serve the long future and the true liberties of men." 

' Bravo, Governor Wilson ! How can "the long future and 
the true liberties of men" be better served than by the adoption 
of the Howell System of National Laws for the establishing in 
this republic of Economic Liberty ? On that foundation, all neces- 
sary economic laws for the best good of all the people may be 
builded, for all time to come, as have been built up and are still 
being built our political liberties on the foundation laid by our 
forefathers in the Constitution of the United States. 

Income and Inheritance Taxes Inadequate 

Judged by known past results, both the income tax and the 
inheritance tax are inadequate and unsatisfactory. "The far- 
reaching and evil consequences," says Leslie's Weekly, "of hasty 
legislation were never better illustrated than in the inheritance 
tax legislation of New York and Oklahoma. . . . The New York 
Legislature, at its short session, July, 1910, passed an inheritance 
tax law to the maximum of twenty- five per cent. In less than a 
year this hasty legislation has driven more than $400,000,000 of 
funds from the state, and Governor Dix very properly has now 
appealed to the Legislature for its amendment. The law was 
designed to increase the revenue of the State, but, ... it would, 
by driving out funds from the State, within a short time actually 
decrease revenue." 

Inevitably, inheritance tax laws in any state imposing exces- 



60 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

sive rates of taxation will drive beyond its borders all movable 
wealth which is seriously affected. No such effect will be pro- 
duced by the Howell System for two reasons. First, because 
the System is national, and, second, because the rate of taxation 
is insignificant on all fortunes running well up into the millions. 
Wealth or capital, as distinguished from revenues therefrom, can- 
not be successfully withdrawn from a nation although much of it 
may be permanently transferred from one state to another. In 
fact, by a sane regulative influence over business methods and 
capital, the Howell System will have the effect of preventing a 
very large percentage of the present annual outgo of millions of 
dollars of American money into European channels. 

Hampton's Magazine and the Money Power 

In an article entitled "Will the Magazine Press Remain 
Free?" in the March, 1911, of Hampton's, that independent peri- 
odical said : 

"Certainly American public life in recent years has had no 
greater force than the new type of journalism — the magazine- 
making that fights to save the people from complete enslavement 
to the Money Power. How will the destruction of your most 
effective advocate affect you in your struggle to regain some 
measure of control over your own job, your own bread, your own 
raiment ? 

"The periodical publishing business apparently has reached the 
stage where individual enterprises are to give way to groups. . . . 
The problem of the magazine 'trust' may be left to the future for 
solution. Sufficient just now is the fact that magazine groups 
are forming rapidly, and that the individual magazine, published 
separately, probably soon will be a rare thing. . . . The ques- 
tion briefly and frankly is, Will the magazines be able to with- 
stand the Money Power? . . . 

"The American people are in the grasp of the Money Trust. 
This does not mean the dullards, the laggards, the ne'er-do-wells. 
It means the best men, etc. . . . 

"The men of the past who have 'worked their way up' have 
almost invariably done so on other people's money. Usually 
this has been furnished to them by their bankers. In the past, 
the bankers' only questions have been those relating to the char- 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 61 

acter of the business man, his experience and skill, the nature of 
his business, its conditions, and the probable chances of success. 
Conditions have changed. Thousands of business men know this 
from bitter personal experience. Thousands of sturdy, vigorous, 
capable Americans whose greatest desires have been to build up 
and maintain an independent business, have been made to feel 
the iron hand of the Money Trust. 'Thou shalt not run counter 
to Wall Street' is not the eleventh commandment, it is the first 
in the American business world. And the result is the fear that 
breeds cowards — and produces a race of slaves. . . . 

"The business man is being starved by the Money Trust, 
starved in his credit. The banks have ceased to be local insti- 
tutions to promote local enterprises as they were twenty-five years 
ago. They have become in a large measure mere tentacles of Wall 
Street, mere feeders of the Money Power which controls rail- 
roads, the industrial trusts and monopolies. The Money Power 
which refuses to allow any man to engage in any business which 
runs counter to its wishes. . . . 

"If the people of this country wish to regain their largely lost 
liberty, or to keep what still remains of it, if American business 
men wish to carry on their affairs under favorable conditions and 
not under servitude ; if this great and prosperous nation wishes 
to shake off the degrading yoke of the money oligarchy — if they 
believe with Bishop Williams and many other leaders that a free 
magazine press is one of the chief agencies in the struggle that 
has started and must be finished — if they believe these things, 
it is time that a popular and protesting voice sound over the land 
from Maine to California." 

On reading the article from which the foregoing extracts were 
made, I addressed a letter to Hampton's and, among other things, 
referring to the last paragraph quoted, remarked: That popular 
and protesting voice has been sounding the wide land over for 
many years. The trouble is not with the people. They are not 
socialists or single-taxers, and you publishers — you big ones — will 
not take up any great, fundamental, economic reform along new 
and independent lines. The result is that the people simply have 
nothing on which to center their thought, resources and efforts no 
matter how intensely they desire to uphold you. It is up to you 
to supply that something. Aside from the socialists and single- 



62 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

taxers, I am the only man in the United States who has a well- 
defined, comprehensive proposition — a System, not a mere theory 
— ready to submit to the voters of the country. Give me an op- 
portunity to show you whether or not I have something worth 
while to submit to the people. . . . 

Why in the world you should be carrying on the fight you are 
conducting in detail and piecemeal, and opening the way for ex- 
pensive and humiliating suits for libel, when the way is wide 
open for a fight all along the line, with at least ninety per cent of 
the people selfishly and patriotically with you, is a thing wholly in- 
comprehensible to me. However, I dare say that you will con- 
tinue in the same old way, and blame the people for not giving you 
their overwhelming support when you propose absolutely nothing 
to them which makes it possible for them to unite in your support. 

My letter led to an investigation of my proposition by Hamp- 
ton's, and they have written me saying, among other things : 

''There can be no doubt that your ideas are sound, and that 
an exposition of your system should make a very effective maga- 
zine article. ... I only hope that we can get around to this mat- 
ter soon." 

Roosevelt, Perkins and the New York World 

On numerous occasions, Theodore Roosevelt and George W. 
Perkins, a former partner of J. P. Morgan, have expressed the 
opinion that the Constitution of the United States ought to be 
amended in order to meet the demands of modern conditions. 
Their audacity in daring to hint at such a desecration of the ven- 
erated palladium of our liberties causes the New York World 
to throw a violent editorial fit. This, too, in spite of the fact that 
for many, many moons, and then some more, the JJ^orld has been 
advocating the adoption of the income-tax amendment. "It was 
a great document in its day," ironically avers the U'orld, "but 
there was no Theodore Roosevelt and no George W. Perkins 
in the convention that framed it or on the bench of the Supreme 
Court that interpreted it. There must be a new Constitution, The- 
odore Roosevelt to furnish the principles of government and 
George W. Perkins to supply the ticker-tape on which it is to be 
engrossed." With more consistency and with as little sense the 
quotation from the World could have read as follows: 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 63 

"It was a great document in its day, but there was no Theodore 
Roosevelt, no George W. Perkins and no member of the editorial 
staff of the World in the convention that framed it or on the bench 
of the Supreme Court that interpreted it. There must be a new 
Constitution, Theodore Roosevelt to furnish the principles of 
government, George W. Perkins to supply the ticker-tape on which 
it is to be engrossed, and the editorial staff of the New York 
World to interpret it with a special view to ferreting out. any 
possible inconsistencies that may creep into the document." 

Bryan's Crown of Thorns and Cross of Gold 

William J. Bryan's famous peroration, in his speech before 
the National Democratic Convention at Chicago, in 1896, sent a 
thrill not only through that great assembly but throughout the 
entire country, when he exclaimed : 

"You shall not press down the crown of thorns on the brow 
of labor ; you shall not crucify mankind on a cross of gold." 

The words seemed, but they only seemed, to promise something- 
worth while to an expectant people. Despite Bryan's eloquence, 
energy and wonderful campaigns, he could not "make good" with 
his "Sixteen-to-One" proposition. 

And, after all these years, still heavier and heavier is the 
crown of thorns pressed down on the brow of labor, and still 
more nearly universal is mankind crucified on a cross of gold. I 
have looked and listened in vain for a protest from Mr. Bryan 
against the permissible accumulation of private fortunes without 
limit — even running into the hundreds of millions of dollars. 
They can not be justified on any grounds ethically sound or eco- 
nomically just. Then, why should the law permit it? 

New York World Sound in Theory — How About Practice? 
In the following little editorial, in its issue of June 22, 1911, 
the New York Evening World succinctly sets forth a few of the 
facts and their logical sequences which are, at once, the reason 
and the justification for the advocacy of the Howell System of 
National Laws for the establishing of Economic Liberty. And 
vet, I haven't the slightest idea or hope that the New York World 
will ever sanction or support the indispensable, fundamental re- 
form which would be effected by my proposed System. Says 
the Evening World: 



64 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

"Popular sentiment upon the settlement of the strike of the 
coastwise seamen against the Morgan line, by a concession of 
higher wages to the men, is likely to be well-nigh unanimous. 
This does not imply any feeling of antagonism to that company in 
particular, nor to capital in general. It signifies only a wide- 
spread conviction that the growing welfare of the people requires 
a larger diffusion of wealth, a better income for wage workers 
in all lines of industry. 

"Modern machinery," continues the World, "controlled under 
new methods of administration has largely augmented the annual 
increase of wealth. The consequence is we are having such an 
exuberance of swollen fortunes as to constitute a serious menace 
to the existing social and political order. The ablest thinkers 
in all lines of study, whether historical, political, economical or 
moral, are virtually agreed upon that point. Therefore, the up- 
ward tendency of labor is watched almost everywhere not only 
with approval but with a belief that it offers the best solution 
now visible for the evils of concentrated capital and social ex- 
travagance." 

True, that "upward tendency of labor," and the upward ten- 
dency which must come to wages, salaries and every other form 
of recompense in all the usual callings of life ; in other words, 
a fair economic distribution of the nation's advancing wealth from 
year to year, and from day to day, must not be left either to the 
caprice of the over-rich or to the disturbing influences and vio- 
lence of strikes. The people themselves, through national legisla- 
tion, must control and regulate fundamental economic conditions 
precisely as they control and regulate fundamental political condi- 
tions. And the average judgment and patriotism of the people at 
large, "the common people," to use a common phrase which I 
do not like, can always be depended on to be reasonable and just. 
History and a knowledge of human nature teaches us that the 
few who gain excessive power, either through wealth or otherwise, 
never can be depended on to be reasonable and just. 

No lesson ever taught mankind drives home more certainly 
that ugly truth than the arbitrary, tyrannical exploitations and 
methods of the centi-millionaire American citizen and the Bil- 
lionaire Group. Is the World really in favor of putting am- ade- 
quate restrictions on these economic monstrosities? Ts the World 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 65 

in favor of the establishment in this republic of Economic Liberty? 
William Randolph Hearst, Roosevelt and Bryan 

The sweeping, general direction of the policy of the Hearst 
papers, and their slam, bang, forceful methods, regardless of 
expense, and with their extraordinary array of editorial talent 
and genius, have been mainly for the protection of the rights 
and interests of the people. And, yet, judged solely in relation 
to his inherited and acquired financial interests, Mr. Hearst is 
anything but one of the people. All the more credit, therefore, 
that his numerous, powerful publications have so generally stood 
for the best interests of the people at large. . 

In a notable address some time since, on "Journalism" and 
incidentally touching on wealth, Mr. Hearst among other things 
said : 

"I regard a newspaper publisher as an attorney retained by the 
people to protect their rights and their interests. I believe it to 
be as much the duty of a newspaper publisher to place the inter- 
ests of the people above all questions of personal friendship or 
personal advantage as it is the duty of an honorable attorney to 
place the interests of his client above all such considerations. . . . 

"The American business man does not accumulate wealth for 
the luxury it affords, but for the power and distinction it con- 
fers. Wealth, by whatever methods accumulated, may confer 
power, but wealth accumulated by unjust methods should not, and 
does not, in this day confer distinction. . . . There is proper criti- 
cism and ever-increasing condemnation of wealth acquired 
through extortion and destructive speculation. Money made in 
proportion to service rendered is a badge of honor. The greater 
the compensation, the greater must have been the service. 

(Does Mr. Hearst wish to be understood as asserting that any 
service rendered to society can, on any conceivable grounds or 
pretext, justify the accumulation of a private fortune of hundreds 
of millions of dollars which is the product of the toil of men, 
women and children? Or, that any possible disposition which 
may be made of such a private fortune after it is once accu- 
mulated, can justify its existence? Especially when it is accu- 
mulated under economic conditions which yield to the vast body 
of the wage-earning, wealth-producing classes a bare subsistence? 
From either the moral or economic standpoint, is such a fortune 
5 



66 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

honestly acquired ? In exchange for it, does the possessor render 
to society any possible service which, by any flight of the imagina- 
tion, can be considered adequate?) 

"But money acquired through extortion," further remarks Mr. 
Hearst, "is merely a measure of disgrace, and journalism when it 
inveighs against such business methods but registers the rising 
tide of popular resentment. The American people will no longer 
tolerate business methods which are essentially unjust and unfair." 

In a sense it is true that the people do not tolerate such meth- 
ods, but just the same they are utterly helpless under existing laws 
to prevent such universal impositions. If the people were suffer- 
ing from political oppression and tyranny, they would quickly 
end the outrages by destroying or limiting the political power of 
the tyrants. In other words, they would re-establish Political 
Liberty. Now, however, since a power has been wrongfully 
seized and is wielded by an insignificant few through the ex- 
cessive accumulation of private fortunes, the great masses of the 
people are appealed to by the Interests to remain passive, ignoble 
economic serfs although possessing Political Liberty and the 
power to achieve Economic Liberty by the bloodless instrumen- 
tality of the ballot. 

And yet, this wealth power, which is a more irresistible and 
a more brutal and a more brutalizing form of evil among men 
than political tyranny, the majority of the great publications and 
leaders of the country seem to regard as being too sacred to be 
interfered with or in any manner limited. 

The great question of the day — the one great remaining socio- 
logical question of the ages among civilized men — is Economic 
Liberty. It is not only paramount, it stands solitary and alone, 
just as did, in 1776, the one great question of Political Liberty. 
In comparison, all other political issues, no matter what may be 
their importance otherwise, are secondary and petty. Political 
liberty among men is brought about by restricting the powers 
of the over-powerful and making the laws so that no man or set 
of men, under any pretext whatever, may ever again become so 
over-powerful that he or they may impose upon the people, in 
any form, political tyranny. 

Along the same lines is to be achieved Economic Liberty. Is 
Mr. Hearst, as one of the great publishers of the country who 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 67 

says he regards "a newspaper publisher as an attorney retained 
by the people to protect their rights and their interests," in favor 
of Economic Liberty, or is he a tory? If he is a present or pros- 
pective aspirant for the exalted office of President of this Re- 
public, the people should insist on a decisive response to that one 
decisive question. They should ask it of all men who seek to rep- 
resent them in public life and in halls of legislation. 

Repeated, unsuccessful efforts, extending over a period of 
some ten years, to reach Mr. Hearst and to induce him, regard- 
less of the editorial attitude of his papers, to open the columns of 
his great journals for the presentation to the people of my plan 
for the bringing about of Economic Liberty in this republic, have 
all but convinced me that Mr. Hearst and his publications, when 
this question of Economic Liberty shall be forced into practical 
politics, will be found radically opposed to the movement and 
supporting the existing economic conditions which are responsible 
for the centi-millionaire on the one hand, and, on the other, mil- 
lions of under-paid wage-earners and other impoverished, worthy 
citizens. I trust that I am mistaken. However, it is rather too 
much to expect of human nature, that a man of large inherited 
wealth and of greater wealth acquired will look with disfavor on 
conditions which have bestowed upon his youth and on his later 
efforts such lavish bounty. 

And, yet, a Hearst, with his financial resources and great pub- 
lications ; or a Roosevelt, or a Bryan, with his tremendous personal 
following and hold upon the people, could lead a decisive move- 
ment for the establishing of Economic Liberty in this republic 
which would do incalculable good to mankind — greater good, a 
thousand times over, than ever can result from the hundreds of 
millions of dollars devoted to charity, endowments and founda- 
tions by the Rockefeller and Carnegie methods. 

Each one of these men, Hearst, Roosevelt and Bryan, I have 
sought to interest in this movement, but in vain. There are so 
many other questions and issues more important than this ques- 
tion of Economic Liberty. So the tories claimed all through the 
years which led up to 1776; to the War of Independence and to 
Political Liberty. And, still, as we of to-day look back to those 
heroic times, how trivial and insignificant do all other questions 
and issues appear in the light of history, no matter how important 



68 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

in themselves, as compared with the one, great, fundamental ques- 
tion of Political Liberty ! 

Political liberty had first to be achieved. Then was evolved 
Religious Liberty, which, in these latter decades, has become a 
perfect reality. The Triune of Freedom in this Republic is yet 
to be completed by the establishment of Economic Liberty. The 
man who claims that economic justice is consistent with the un- 
limited accumulation of private fortunes, and is opposed to limi- 
tations within sane and reasonable bounds, on any pretext what- 
ever, is an enemy to the fundamental rights and to the interests 
and welfare of the people at large, for the simple reason that he 
is opposed to the establishing of Economic Liberty. Where does 
Mr. Hearst, and the other great publishers and leaders, stand on 
this one decisive, test question of the people? 

The Money Trust — Lawson, Wall Street Journal, World, 

Wilson 

Said Thomas W. Lawson, in a published statement, referring 
to certain phases of things financial as indicated by statistics for 
the year 1909: "The wealth of America is one hundred and 
twenty billion dollars. It was created by ninety million people. 
It should belong to them. Ten thousand people own over one 
hundred billions of it. Eighty-nine million nine hundred and 
ninety thousand own less than twenty billions. How did the few 
get the much and the many the little ? That's the rub. Nine mil- 
lion people," continues Mr. Lawson, "have four billion dollars 
of savings deposited in savings banks. They receive each year 
four per cent in interest. To-day this one hundred and sixty mil- 
lion dollars will buy only one-half what it bought fifteen years 
ago. During the past fifteen years, while the four per cent yearly 
earnings of the people's savings have been cut in two in buying 
power, the capital of the System, the few, invested in national 
banks and trust companies, has earned yearly thirty-six per cent. 
. . . The question for the people to answer is: Why is it thnt 
our money earns but four per cent, while the people who borrow it 
from us at four per cent can make it earn thirty-six per cent? On 
the correctness of the answer to this question depends the salva- 
tion of the American people." 

Mr. Lawson was ultra-conservative, at least so far as some 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 69 

of the New York banks and trust companies are concerned, in his 
estimate of thirty-six per cent annual earnings. Witness, in sup- 
port of my assertion, the following New York World editorial, of 
recent date, under the caption of "Money-Trust Profits," in which 
-is reproduced part of the astounding story told by figures, "which 
do not lie," compiled by the Wall Street Journal: 

"How money breeds money, particularly as respects the profits 
from lending other people's money, is instructively set forth in 
the summary made by the Wall Street Journal of the reports of 
the National City Bank, the National Bank of Commerce, the 
First National and the Chase National to the Comptroller of the 
Currency. The National City Bank reported a four years' in- 
crease of surplus and undivided profits of $12,500,000 on a capital 
stock of $25,000,000. But it is the record of the First National 
that best exhibits the enormous potentiality of wealth in the use 
of depositors' funds: 

" 'For a number of years prior to 1901 the bank paid divi- 
dends of 100 per cent annually on a capital of $500,000. In 1902 
a dividend of 1,900 per cent was declared, the largest ever paid 
by a banking institution up to that time, for the purpose of in- 
creasing the capital to $10,000,000. On this capitalization the bank 
paid a twenty per cent dividend annually until 1905, when it was 
increased to 21^4 per cent, with an extra dividend of five per 
cent. In 1906 the rate was increased to 26^4 per cent and in 
1907 to 32 per cent. 

" 'A dividend of 100 per cent was declared in 1908, which, 
however, was never paicl directly to the stockholders but was used 
to organize the First Security Company, the stock of which was 
issued in the name of the stockholders of the First National and 
then trusteed to the bank. Since then two dividends have been 
declared, one on the bank stock amounting to twenty per cent 
regular and eight per cent extra, and the other on the First Secu- 
rity stock amounting to twelve per cent. This year the bank 
stock was put on a regular twenty-eight per cent rate, which, added 
to the dividend on the security company, gives the stockholders a 
regular forty per cent dividend. On May 20, 1907, the surplus 
and undivided profits of the bank amounted to $19,749,500, and it 
reported in the same items on June seventh, $20,906,700. The 



70 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

dividends in those five years, including the 100 per cent extra, to- 
taled over $22,000,000.' 

"Compared with the profits of the Money Trust the earnings 
of industrial trusts on their invested capital appear paltry. It is 
not from oil, steel and tobacco that the greatest gains come, but 
from money-changing and the exploitation of the proceeds of 
industry. 

"As Woodrow Wilson said in his speech at Harrisburg last 
night : 'The great monopoly in this country is the money monop- 
oly.' " 

U. S. Senator Cummins On Danger At Hand 

In a recent public address, at Washington, Senator Cummins, 
of Iowa, undoubtedly pointed out the most imminent and greatest 
danger to the institutions of our country when, among other 
things, he said : 

"The distribution of the accumulated earnings of the great 
working masses is the burning issue of the day— the great ques- 
tion which overshadows every other problem in America. There 
no longer is any question of production. The American people 
can produce more wealth within a given time than any other three 
nations. It is the problem of distribution that will wreck the 
American Republic, if the republic ever is wrecked. And it is 
this problem of distribution that seems to be insoluble. Our in- 
dustries are being centralized, the giant producing concerns of 
our country are being amalgamated and merged in such a manner 
that a comparatively few men now virtually control the necessities 
of life. 

"Out of the seething questions confronting the American 
people this one will present itself for adjudication, and its set- 
tlement will determine whether the United States shall continue 
to be free and independent, or be wrecked by a bloody revolution." 

And, how are the American people ever successfully to cope 
with those few men now in control, the Billionaire Group? Ab- 
solutely nothing will prevail against their incomprehensible wealth 
power, which is the very essence and concentration of all elements 
of power — political, industrial, money power, etc. — nothing short 
of the Howell System of National ^aws for the establishment of 
Economic Liberty. Is Senator Cummins in favor of establishing 
Economic Liberty? 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 71 

Christ's Teachings As To Riches 

There is an excessively rich American type of professing or- 
thodox Christian who possesses a sort of savage piety. This type, 
while prayerfully seeking to keep within the letter of the law, has 
stopped at nothing short of criminal methods in getting the best 
of and crushing business rivals. This type is even said to have 
promulgated the doctrine that it is morally wrong for a rich man 
to loan money to a poor man. 

While too literal an interpretation of the teachings of Christ 
may not be practicable in this essentially commercial age and 
country, it would seem that the devoutly pious type in question 
ought, at least, to keep in hailing distance of the Master's teach- 
ings ; such, for instance, as are found in the following verses in 
the Tenth Chapter of the Gospel according to St. Mark : 

"17. And when he was gone forth into the way, there came 
one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, 
what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? 

"18. And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? 
there is none good but one, that is God. 

"19. Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adul- 
tery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Defraud 
not, Honor thy father and mother. 

"20. And he answered and said unto him, Master, all these 
have I observed from my youth. 

"21. Then Jesus beholding him loved him, and said unto him, 
One thing thou lackest ; go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and 
give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and 
come, take up the cross, and follow me. 

"22. And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved : 
for he had great possessions. 

"23. And Jesus looked round about, and saith unto his dis- 
ciples, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the 
kingdom of God! 

"24. And the disciples were astonished at his words. But 
Jesus answerest again,, and saith unto them, Children, how hard 
is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God. 

"25. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, 
than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." 



PART VI 

PROPOSED SYSTEM ORIGINAL 

Began Propaganda As Young Man in 1885 ; Unthinkable 
Injustice and Brutality of Economic Conditions; Studied 
and Discarded as Practical Remedies Both Socialism and 
Single-Tax; Principle of Graduated or Progressive Taxa- 
tion Old But Howell System New ; Excerpts from Earlier 
Published Articles and Pamphlets ; Evils of Colossal 
Wealth ; Must Be Limited ; Amendment to Constitution of 
the United States Necessary; Advocated by Me in Print 
(1888) Long Before United States Supreme Court Decided 
Income Tax Unconstitutional; Until Constitution Amen- 
ded Supreme Court Can Properly Render No Other De- 
cision on That Question ; Chicago News Articles and 
Pamphlet, 1890; Andrew Carnegie's "The Man Who Dies 
THUS Rich Dies Disgraced" Often Misquoted by Omitting 
the Word "Thus" ; Why Wait Until Men Die to Apply So 
Good a Principle; Greatest Problem of the Age. 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM— VI 



For various reasons not necessary to mention, I emphasize the 
fact that more than twenty-five years ago, namely, during the 
summer of 1885, while, as a young man, I was occupying the 
position of associate editor of the Daily Mining Journal, Mar- 
quette, Michigan, I published in that paper the initial articles, over 
the nom de plume of "Vishnu," in the Howell System propaganda. 

From a very early period of my life I had come most keenly 
to feel, not only from study and observation but from personal 
experience, the unthinkable injustice and brutality of the race- 
wide economic conditions which were rapidly assuming their most 
oppressive and most obnoxious aspects in our republic of the po- 
litically free. Steadily and with accelerating speed have those 
conditions gone on from bad to worse. Conditions which are 
forever crushing out the spirit and individuality and destroying 
the original initiative of millions of the worthiest of the human 
race ; conditions which have rendered wholly unavailable to the 
great body of the American citizenry the otherwise incomparable 
opportunities which abound on all sides for the obtaining of sub- 
stantial and well-diversified individual success and prosperity. 
And all this in order that a few individual deci-millionaires, centi- 
millionaires and near-billionaires, herein characterized as the Bil- 
lionaire Group, may misappropriate to themselves and their fam- 
ilies and beneficiaries the almost incalculable surplus wealth of the] 
United States — wealth which is derived from the matchless nat- 
ural resources of the country and produced solely by the working 
forces of ninety millions of people ; working forces possessing, 
probably,, the highest average and aggregate ability and indus- 
trial efficiency of any people in the history of the world. Nothing 
in the records of mankind can be compared, for anomalous incon- 
gruity, with these economic phenomena as developed in our land 
of politically free institutions. Our forefathers rebelled and 
threw off the British yoke because of impositions absolutely in- 
significant when compared with those inflicted upon the politically 
free people of this country by the economic tyranny of the Bil- 
lionaire Group. 

Seeking a remedy for conditions so utterly intolerable, I turned 

75 



76 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

to the study of socialism. In its best aspect, however, I could 
discover little more than an enticing philosophy and a program 
of impracticable theories. I was compelled to reject it as a con- 
vincing and satisfying response to my inquiries. 

I next made a careful study of the single-tax plan as eluci- 
dated by its author in his great work entitled "Progress and Pov- 
erty." But, while I then regarded and still consider the late 
Henry George as being one of the noblest of men, and one of the 
greatest commentators on human rights and economics that ever 
lived, I was reluctantly forced to discard his single-tax scheme as 
a practical, fundamental remedy to be applied nationally by a 
great people. 

At that time, these two were the only proposed solutions of 
this race-old economic problem which could fairly claim the seri- 
ous consideration of the people. And, barring the Howell Sys- 
tem, there is none other up to the present time. 

Finding myself as bitterly opposed to the injustices and op- 
pressions of existing economic conditions as could be the most 
radical socialist or single-taxer, and yet being able to adopt the 
tenets of neither one of these schools of economics, I began the 
study of the subject along lines wholly independent. The result 
has been the gradual working out and maturing of the Howell 
System of National Laws for the Establishment of Economic 
Liberty. There has been no general dissemination of the tenets 
of the Howell System, notwithstanding the length of time that I 
have been personally engaged in their advocacy. 

The Howell System, be its merits what they may be, is com- 
plete in all its parts, and, in its entirety, it is wholly original. 
The principle of graduated or progressive taxation has been ap- 
plied, in one form and another, since the beginning of civilized 
society. But, the Howell System, as such and for its intended 
purposes, is as original as the Wright aeroplane. It is no more to 
be regarded otherwise because it is founded on the progressive 
principle in taxation, than the invention of the heavier than air 
machine is to be considered as not being original for the reason 
that birds have flown since creation. 

Having reached the point where my proposed new economic 
System took on definite shape, I gave it "a local habitation and a 
name," and began the advocacy of an amendment to the Consti- 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 77 

tution of the United States to make possible its inauguration and 
enforcement. In fact, long before the United States Supreme 
Court rendered its decision declaring the income tax unconstitu- 
tional, I was advocating, in print, an amendment to meet just such 
a contingency. Until the Constitution is amended, I do not un- 
derstand how the Supreme Court can properly give any other 
decision. 

By way of verification of the foregoing assertions, and in order 
to chronicle concisely certain other significant utterances in rela- 
tion to unjust economic conditions and my proposed remedy, I 
herewith append a few excerpts from my earlier published articles 
and pamphlets. 

Excerpts from Magazine Article and Pamphlet, 1888 

Colossal, not simply moderate nor even large, but colossal in- 
dividual wealth, "aided and abetted" by inequitable tax laws, that 
often become infamously unjust in their practical application, are, 
in my estimation, the two chief causes of the growing and wide- 
spread discontent of the masses, and of the persistence of poverty 
amid advancing wealth. . . -, 

The first and only practical thing to be done, therefore, 
towards remedying this evil, in my opinion, is to set a limit to the 
acquirement and retention of individual wealth ; and, in addition 
thereto, supplement our present tax laws by the introduction of 
a new principle of taxation which will compel the ultra-millionaire 
class to pay a more nearly just and equitable proportion of the 
taxes than they do under any present system of taxation. The 
dual result can be accomplished in this country by introducing 
the Principle of Uniform Taxation by Arithmetical Progression 
Into the Organic or Supreme Lazv of the Land. ... In other 
words, by the adoption of An Amendment to the Constitution of 
the United States, making taxation by arithmetical progression a 
part of the supreme law of the land. 



The dominant political party of the not remote future, be that 
party's name Republican, Democrat, or what not, will be the 
one which adopts and champions some practical method of re- 
lieving the small property-owning masses and wage-earners of the 
heavy burden of taxation which presses upon them in one way 



78 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

and another, and of clearing the competitive field of the com- 
mercial monstrosities who now dominate the world of traffic. 

Excerpts from Chicago Morning News Articles and 

Pamphlet, 1890 

Observers and thinkers the world over freely concede that the 
economic conditions of society are unsatisfactory ; to the well- 
to-do chiefly because of a growing sense of insecurity regarding 
their property rights ; to the restless, underpaid, ill-fed industrial 
masses because of the ceaseless and all but hopeless warfare they 
are waging for a bare subsistence. The mind which fails to recog- 
nize or refuses to admit these facts, neither statistics nor argu- 
ment can enlighten or convince. This state of affairs, which is 
daily becoming more generally understood, has prepared the in- 
dividual mind for economic changes which the exigencies of the 
times require, but the movement for the effecting of which has not 
yet assumed that definite, concrete form which directly appeals 
to the masses and arouses wide-spread public attention and 
activity. 

Anarchy does not supply the open sesame to the hearts of the 
multitude. On the contrary, the doors are bolted and barred 
against its mad assaults. Neither does socialism find ready ac- 
cess to the thoughts and affections of the people. Nor is Henry 
George's theory — the germ of which is the single land tax idea — 
notwithstanding the world-wide fame it has acquired, the lode- 
stone whose magnetic touch is to draw mankind toward it. Nor 
does Edward Bellamy's system invite serious consideration as a 
practical scheme at the present time. 

And, Andrew Carnegie, who may be considered the repre- 
sentative economist of the multi-millionaire class, and who writes 
eloquently of the "Gospel of Wealth," frankly says, in the De- 
cember (1889) number of the North American Review^ that he 
assumes "that the present laws of competition, accumulation and 
distribution are the best obtainable ; that through these the race 
receives its most valuable fruits ; and, therefore, that they should 
be accepted and upheld." So there is no hope of real reform in 
that direction. 

If none of these, then what ? The proposed system of eco- 
nomic reform, in order to succeed, aside from being practical in 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 79 

itself, must embody some element or principle that will appeal so 
powerfully to the great mass of the people as to overcome public 
inertia. It must be founded in right and justice. It must enlist' 
the favor and co-operation of the well-to-do middle classes, those 
whose standing and possessions mark them as solid, substantial 
citizens. 

The real warfare is against conditions, not against the in- 
dividual possessors of abnormal wealth. The possession of in- 
dividual wealth to the utmost limit consistent with honest methods 
and the common good of organized society must be sacredly pro- 
tected and permanently guaranteed. The object to be attained is 
as much to protect the property rights of the justifiably rich as 
to better the conditions of the industrial classes or to subjugate 
the greed and tyranny of unlimited wealth. Furthermore, this 
principle, whatever it may be, if it is to awaken interest and ac- 
tivity, must be accompanied by some system, simple and effective, 
by which it is to be put into operation. The motive power will 
be useless without adequate machinery with which to utilize it. 



The only way in which the system advocated can be incor- 
porated into the laws of the United States is by amendment to 
the Federal Constitution. If it were possible, however, for any 
one or more of the states acting separately and independently to 
adopt the system, it would not be desirable. To be salutary and 
practical in its operation the system must be applied uniformly 
throughout all the territory where the Constitution of the United 
States is the supreme law. 



Published Utterances by Andrew Carnegie 

In my article in the Chicago Morning Nezvs of February 15, 
1890, I freely quoted from and commented on articles by Mr. 
Carnegie which appeared in the North American Review during 
the previous year. I herewith reproduce the principal part of 
that article for the special purpose of showing that Mr. Carnegie, 
in spite of his generous impulses, is totally blind or indifferent 
to the demands of economic justice. 

Andrew Carnegie expresses the view that the laws of accu- 
mulation and distribution should be left free, and that "the mil- 



80 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

lionaire will be but a trustee for the poor, intrusted for a season 
with a great part of the increased wealth of the community, but 
administering for the community far better than it could or would 
have done for itself." Mr. Carnegie being human, it is not so 
surprising that he should regard "the present laws of competition, 
accumulation and distribution the best attainable," as that he 
should entertain the fine sense he displays in his published utter- 
ances of the moral obligations the very rich owe to society, . . . 
as indicated by the following paragraph : 

''The best minds will thus have reached a stage in the de- 
velopment of the race in which it is clearly seen that there is no 
mode of disposing of surplus wealth creditable to thoughtful and 
earnest men into whose hands it flows, save by using it year by 
year for the general good. This day already dawns." 

If so, what are the signs of the dawning? Have the half- 
thousand stupendously rich parvenues of our young republic be- 
come conscious that they are "trustees for the poor," using their 
wealth "year by year for the general good?" 

To quote further from Mr. Carnegie's remarkable article, of 
which no part is more nearly the exact truth : 

"But a little while, and although incurring the pity of their 
fellows, men may die sharers in great business enterprises from 
which their capital cannot be or has not been withdrawn and is 
left chiefly at death for public uses, yet the man who dies leaving 
behind him millions of available wealth which was his to admin- 
ister during life will pass away 'unwept, unhonored and unsung,' 
no matter to what uses he leaves the dross which he cannot take 
with him. Of such as these the public verdict will be: The man 
who dies Thus rich dies disgraced." 

If to die thus rich is to die disgraced — why? For no other 
reason, manifestly, than that in the excessive accumulation of 
wealth "those who die thus rich" have violated the natural, moral 
and social rights of their fellow-men, even though they may never 
have committed any open or technical infraction of the civil 
statutes. Mr. Carnegie being morally conscious of these facts 
would have reparation made by these "trustees of the poor" using 
their excessive wealth year by year for the general good. Rut, as 
a class, they never have done so, and who is there so credulous 
as to believe that thev ever will? And if thev were certain to do 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 81 

so, the ethical principle remains that it would be neither just nor 
humane that the community should become a beneficiary of a few 
whose riches, power and position are alone made possible and 
secure by the existence of organized society. Such a condition 
would be infamously wrong and degrading. 

That Mr. Carnegie is a friend of the principle of progressive 
or graduated taxation, though he doubtless is not in favor of its 
application to the extent and so effectively as advocated by the 
writer, will appear from the following extract from his article 
heretofore mentioned : 

"This growing disposition to tax more and more heavily large 
estates left at death is a cheering indication of the growth of a 
salutary change in public opinion. The state of Pennsylvania now 
takes, subject to some exceptions, one-tenth of the property left by 
its citizens. The budget presented in the British parliament the 
other day proposes to increase the death-duties, and most sig- 
nificant of all the new tax is to be a graduated one. Of all forms 
of taxation this seems to be the wisest. Men who continue hoard- 
ing great sums all their lives, the proper use of which for public 
ends would work good to the community, should be made to feel 
that the community, in the form of the state, cannot be deprived 
of its proper share. By taxing estates heavily at death the state 
marks its condemnation of the selfish millionaire's unworthy life." 

Why, let us inquire at this point, should not the community 
set its mark of condemnation on such an one while he yet lives, 
when he begins to display these characteristics which the wealthy 
Carnegie denounces? Why not, by legislation emanating from 
the fountain-head of all our civil laws, set a mark — a just and 
reasonable limit — to which all men may go in the accumulation of 
individual wealth but beyond which they may not go in a career 
of avaricious greed? Why brand a man, dead, with disgrace or 
infamy for a career that is not only tolerated but usually applaud- 
ed while he lives? 

Mr. Carnegie continuing the line of thought last quoted, says : 
"It is desirable that nations should go much further in this direc- 
tion. Tndeed, it is difficult to set bounds to the share of a rich 
man's estate which should go at his death to the public through 
the agency of the state, and by all means such taxes should be 
graduated, beginning at nothing upon moderate sums to depend- 

6 



82 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

ents, and increasing rapidly as the amount swells, until the mil- 
lionaire's hoard, as of Shylock's, at least 

" ' — the other half 

Comes to the privy coffer of the state.' ' 

And now mark his opinion of the effect such a system would 
have upon men, when he says : 

"This policy would work powerfully to induce rich men to 
attend to the administration of wealth during life, as being that 
by far most fruitful for the people. Nor need it be feared that 
this policy would sap the root of enterprise and render less anxious 
to accumulate; for the class whose ambition it is to leave great 
fortunes and be talked about after death it will attract even more 
attention, and, indeed, be a somewhat nobler ambition to have 
enormous sums paid over to the state from their fortunes." 

The effect thus predicted by Mr. Carnegie undoubtedly would 
be almost the universal rule. All men love fame — the applause 
of their fellow-men — and knowing that after a certain limit of 
riches had been reached no more could be retained by their heirs 
or legal representatives at the owner's death, he would either re- 
tire from the competitive field and give others an opportunity to 
achieve success that would-be physically and commercially an im- 
possibility while he remained ; or, remaining in active control of 
the great sources of wealth at his command he would continue 
to hoard his riches that his name after death might be heralded 
the world over as one who had been a benefactor to his fellow- 
men. 

But, if this policy is a proper one to apply to a dead man's 
estate and the effect upon the wealth accumulator living would be 
of so salutary and ennobling a nature, why not adopt a system for 
the enforcement of such a principle while men live? In that 
event the wealth accumulator, having reached the individual 
wealth-limit, would, either from choice or necessity in case he 
wished to remain in active business, devote much time and atten- 
tion to the proper administration of his surplus wealth. . . . Nor 
would it deprive the individual of any right or discretion that he 
could retain under the policy which Mr. Carnegie would have 
enforced at death. It would leave the wealth-accumulator free to 
step out of the competitive field, where now the contest the world 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 83 

over is fierce unto ruin for the many that the few may accumu- 
late and hoard all; or, as above suggested, he could remain in 
active life, his mind ennobled and his heart inspired by the thought 
that he occupied a similar position in public estimation to the fa- 
mous statesmen and generals who devote their great abilities and 
energies — yea, even their lives, if need be — to the general good of 
their fellow-men. 

Can any one estimate the ennobling, the inspiring effect of 
such a policy upon men of great ability — men, who, under existing 
economic and social conditions, think more of wrecking railroads, 
watering stock, raising the price of the necessaries of life by cor- 
nering the market, pressing down to abject poverty and indus- 
trial slavery the manual laborers of every vocation, and rendering 
landless and homeless the masses, than they now think of using 
even a fraction of their immense riches "year by year for the gen- 
eral good"? Is there anything in such a policy or system that 
will destroy individualism, or sap the root of enterprise and ren- 
der men less anxious to accumulate? Manifestly not. The effect 
would be to enlarge men's ideas of the moral and social obli- 
gations, improve business methods, teach men that organized 
society has righteous claims upon them which they must no 
longer ignore and violate, and in a thousand ways would such 
a policy, made national in scope, intensify while ennobling in- 
dividualism, and lessen illegitimate while enlivening legitimate 
enterprise. 

Excerpt from a Pamphlet Published in 1891 

This sociological problem is the greatest of the age, and in 
the natural and logical evolution and progress of human affairs it 
now demands solution. The present century may be getting too 
old to witness any material modification in economic conditions, 
as such reforms are of the slowest growth. I hazard the predic- 
tion, however, that the Twentieth Century will not have passed 
its teens before the inhabitants of this country will be enjoying 
a state of commercial and industrial freedom unknown at pres- 
ent, and never before experiencd in the history of nations. Either 
that will come to pass or the retrograde movement of national 
decay and the pauperizing of the masses will have gained a mo- 
mentum fortunately not yet attained in this republic. 



84 THE HOWELL SYSTEM . 

Excerpts from Philadelphia North American Series, 

1905-6 

The great, conservative, law-abiding masses of the people 
demand a restoration and preservation of sane individualism, as a 
golden mean between radical socialism on the one hand, and, on 
the other, the insane individualism, or financial absolutism, rep- 
resented by a private fortune approximating a billion dollars in 
value, and said to produce for the current year an income of 
forty million dollars. 

An eminent scholar, having carefully considered the proposed 
Howell System, wrote to me as follows : " You have a great re- 
form in embryo. Time and study are needed to perfect it in 
details. Persevere, my dear sir, in your grand work. It is a 
mission worthy of all your energies. It is Second Only to the 
Declaration of Independence, and indeed, without this reform, that 
Declaration will become null and void." 



Graft is strictly a personal individual offense. It is never a 
corporate crime. No corporation ever stole anything — not even a 
postage stamp or a franchise. But, the American people are be- 
ginning to realize that municipal graft, appalling as it has been, 
is but a little stagnant pool of dirty water, slightly agitated and 
"riled up," compared with the ocean of graft in vast commercial 
and industrial enterprises, the evidence of which is just com- 
mencing to sweep through the open floodgates of publicity. 



Solve a thousand other issues as the people may, and the 
greatest economic problem which confronts the inhabitants of 
this republic will remain unsolved, in the opinion of the writer, 
until an equitable legal limit, approximating the moral right of 
the thing, shall be set to the individual accumulation of wealth, 
and until a system of taxation, national and uniform, shall be in 
force which shall transfer the chief tax burden from the small 
holdings of the poorer classes, where it now rests often with 
crushing weight, to the surplus accumulations of the very rich 
where it never can be felt. . . . 

Cash is the dominating factor. As applied to the individual the 
rule is that, with very rare exceptions, mediocrity and demerit 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 85 

plus cash readily attain financial success, whereas superiority and 
merit minus cash fail utterly. 

The speakers and writers who assert, as is habitual with those 
who defend existing economic conditions, that any man who does 
not acquire a comfortable fortune in a few years^-enough, at 
least, to place himself and family or dependents beyond the fear 
of want — is either a spendthrift, a loafer or a fool, may voice 
the sentiment of the ultra-millionaire class, to which they be- 
long or to which they toady, but the assertion is an insult to a 
respectable, capable, large and unfortunately an increasing part of 
the population of the entire country. 



To the faint-hearted, an amendment to the Federal Consti- 
tution suggests an insurmountable obstacle. On the contrary, as 
an issue on which to center public attention and thought, and with 
which to overcome public inertia, it is the one thing desirable if 
not imperatively needed. Any proposed reform looking to the 
material betterment of the individual member of organized soci- 
ety, and to a wide-spread improvement in the economic condi- 
tions of the country, which does not possess sufficient vitality to 
insure the adoption of an amendment to the supreme law of the 
land, is not worth a moment's serious attention of any voter. The 
proposed system is to be a national one if it is to be at all. As 
an attempted state reform it could not fail to prove wholly im- 
practicable. 

The natural person is the God-created human unit as he comes 
new-born into the world, whether in a hovel or a palace. The 
personal economic product of organized society is that same hu- 
man unit passing the few allotted years of life here on earth 
either, on the one hand, in hopeless, crushing adversity, poverty 
and toil ; or, on the other extreme, taken up by the artificial ad- 
vantages provided for him by organized society and elevated, 
with the exercise of little or no personal ability or effort, to 
incomprehensible wealth. These types are the extremes, and be- 
tween them range all the varying conditions and experiences of 
the different members of the great human family — experiences 
mainly sad and deplorable and conditions largely intolerable and 
preventable. . . . Considered as a member of organized society, 



86 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

every individual, taken at any stage of his experience, is nine- 
tenths economic and one-tenth natural product. 

This not only implies the right of society to modify the ar- 
tificial conditions with which it surrounds the personal unit, but 
it imposes upon society the imperative duty to change these con- 
ditions, from time to time, when safety to itself or justice to its 
individual members demand such modifications. To-day that 
sacred and imperative duty devolves upon society the world over, 
but in no country more plainly than in the United States. 



PART VII 

FICTION SKETCHES GERMANE TO THE SUBJECT 

(Four J 

The Balance Sheet of Life ; Chronicles Writ in the 
Year 1925 (With Cartoon) ; The Original Skidoo Twenty- 
Three Before Ate, The Goddess of Revenge (With Car- 
toon) ; Midas Billionaire At the River Styx. 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM-VII 



The Balance Sheet of Life 

"There," mused the Centi-Millionaire, seated alone in his 
spacious private library, "I've given a few more millions to the 
Good Cause. I ought to get some credit for that even from the 
kickers." 

"But," admonished Small Voice, "you must be just before 
you may rightly lay claim to the credit of being generous. That 
sum does not equal your income for a month, and without the 
faithful labor and services of thousands your vast income would 
cease." 

"If I did not employ them they would starve," contended the 
Centi-Millionaire. 

"If you had not employed them for years you would not 
to-day possess your fortune of half a billion dollars," retorted 
Small Voice. "And think of the ever-present poverty and dis- 
tress among them at all times, and among other millions of in- 
dustrious, worthy people throughout the country every hour of 
the passing years !" 

"My fortune's my own, anyhow," asserted the Centi-Million- 
aire. "I began with nothing and I made it all — all, I tell you, and 
I'll do what I please with my own." 

"You're mistaken, my smug friend," responded Small Voice. 
"No, not mistaken, for you know that your statement is untrue." 

"Not true," snapped the man. "I dispute your impertinent 
charge. It's mine, every dollar of it's mine." 

"Let's see," calmly replied Small Voice, glancing through a 
file of documents. "Ah, yes, here is the Balance Sheet from the 
Account Books of your Life. These Account Books of Life 
are kept with unerring accuracy and with naught set down in 
malice." 

"The Balance Sheet of Life?" sneered the Centi-Millionaire. 
"I know of no such thing. But what, according to your fancy, 
is revealed by the Balance Sheet from the Account Books of 
my Life?" 

"It shows," responded Small Voice, "that, out of your private 

89 



90 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

fortune of five hundred millions of dollars, you owe an over- 
due balance of four hundred millions to vast numbers of Work- 
people ;' to Skilled and Unskilled Laborers ; to Clerks and to Em- 
ployees of all kinds ; to Small Dealers and to your Fellow Men 
in all walks of life" — 

"Lies — all lies!" broke in the aroused Dollar Baron. "Beast- 
ly lies ! I owe no man a penny !" 

"In addition to this immense aggregate debt to all these peo- 
ple," persisted the unheeding Small Voice, "you owe to Organized 
Society, not only by way of just contribution towards greater 
compensation to School Teachers and other Public Servants, but 
for the protection .and safety of whatever part of this wealth 
you may justly retain, another item of fifty millions of dollars. 
These tremendous sums you have succeeded, although operating 
usually within the technical limits of law-honesty, in wrongfully 
wresting and withholding from those whom, either in wages or 
on some other basis, the vast bulk of this wealth should have 
gone from time to time as the days and the years were passing." 

"I tell you that what you say is false," expostulated the Centi- 
Millionaire. "Lies, all lies ! What I have is mine — all mine !" 

"To apply on account," quietly interrupted Small Voice, "to 
apply on account, there stands on the credit side of your Balance 
Sheet of Life, for the entire period embracing all these years of 
monstrous accumulation, an aggregate of fifty millions of dol- 
lars donated to various branches of the Good Cause. However, 
you have simply been paying out money which was not yours, 
morally, to give — wealth which you have cajoled from some be- 
cause of their confidence and simplicity or forced from others 
because of their necessities." 

"Lies — more lies — all lies !" angrily retorted the disturbed cul- 
prit at the bar of his own conscience. 

"Not until you pay your debt of four hundred and fifty mil- 
lions," resumed the accusing Small Voice, "to the various indi- 
viduals and claimants heretofore mentioned, will this fifty million 
donation to the Good Cause be allowed to stand to your credit 
on the Account Books of Life. As the record now stands, you are 
frightfully 'to the bad,' and this fifty million dollar item is en- 
tered to the credit of the Workpeople ; Small Dealers ; School 
Teachers; Employees of all classes — to all, in fact, who make up 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 91 

the great aggregate body to whom you owe the four hundred 
and fifty millions." 

"I deny it. I owe no man. I pay my debts," again inter- 
rupted the irate Centi-Millionaire. 

"All civilized men," solemnly continued the Small Voice, with 
level and penetrating insistence, "know that these are the real 
facts, as you and I know them to be. So, beware, lest in your 
mad riding over the rights of men you ride to a fall. Men en 
masse ; the great national aggregations of men, are silent, patient, 
enduring, until the bounds of all restraint are madly broken — 
then, as history repeatedly teaches, comes chaos. In that hour, 
the Almighty Dollar, though marshalled in billions and officered 
by the greatest Captains of Industry the world ever has known, 
will become a cipher. This Dollar Thing, which now stands for 
all power, will be, presto prasto, nothing. Let folly and greed," 
sternly admonished the impressive Small Voice, "proceed but a 
little further in their wealth-madness, and the end is inevitable, 
and that end will be an end to all law and order and to all prop- 
erty and valuable possessions. Then will the desolation and de- 
struction wrought be most horrible for you who have most profit- 
ed by the seizing of incomprehensible private fortunes, you who 
have most oppressed your fellow men. Beware, lest a nation-wide 
mob-rule of dollars provokes a nation-wide mob-rule of exas- 
perated citizens !" 

"Mob-rule of dollars — ridiculous!" scornfully declared the 
beneficiary of a thousand raids on the rights of the people by 
the Malefactors of Great Wealth. "There's no such thing; ab- 
surd ; it's childish prattle." 

"Would you know the just and, therefore, the best use to 
make of this vast wealth which you have misappropriated to your 
own possession and control — the most humane — the most states- 
manlike, the most patriotic use to make of it?" 

"Yes, the best use — I would know the best use," with open 
skepticism sneered the Centi-Millionaire. 

"I will tell you," responded Small Voice. "Distribute the 
bulk of this vast misappropriated wealth among those employees 
of all classes, or their lawful heirs if the principals be not living, 
without whose aid and ill-requited services, extending over a long 
term of years, you could not have accumulated such a fortune. 



92 THE HOWELL SYSTEM ■- 

Make ample provision for your own declining years and ade- 
quately provide for all worthy dependents, especially not for- 
getting your own kith and kin. Then devote the balance to the 
race-wide propaganda of the movement for the establishment of 
Economic Liberty, with our own great Republic setting the ex- 
ample for and leading the nations of the earth. Then will all 
men, in their strivings to escape poverty and to achieve some 
measure of material success, be accorded under the laws some- 
thing like an open field of opportunity and endeavor." 

"Economic Liberty," mockingly laughed the Centi-Millionaire. 
"That has no meaning to me — some dream, I suppose ; socialism 
or worse." 

"No, not a dream, nor socialism, but a remedy !" emphatically 
asserted Small Voice, "a System of National Laws, equally op- 
posed to the illusive dreams of Socialism and to the unthinkable 
injustice of existing economic conditions. Such a System of 
Laws not only will provide all necessary revenues for govern- 
ment purposes out of surplus wealth as it is accumulated by all 
individuals protected by the laws of this country, but it will make 
it forever impossible for any citizen of this Republic, even one so 
worthy personally as yourself, to become what you are to-day 
— a Centi-Millionaire economic monstrosity. Regarded as a pri- 
vate citizen, your record is singularly free from blemish. As an 
economic unit, however, you have grown and swollen to monstrous 
and unsightly proportions by feeding, like the Cretan Minotaur, 
upon the very flesh and life-blood of your fellow beings." 

"Ah, ha !" laughed the Moneymaniac, "now I see that you 
are joking — all a joke — a gruesome joke, indeed, but still a joke. 
I really thought at first that you were in earnest. But it is a 
nasty joke — a nasty joke!" 

"Reflect," again solemnly admonished Small Voice, depart- 
ing. "Reflect, and above all things remember that neither here 
nor hereafter is the hardening, from avarice, of a single human 
heart a jest, nor is the brutalizing of human beings through 
poverty and injustice a joke. 

" 'Mirth cannot move a soul in agony. 
A jest's prosperity lies in the ear 
Of him that hears it, never in the tongue 
Of him that makes it.' " 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 93 

Chronicles Writ in the Year 1925 

The Frightful Fate 

of 

Rawson W. Thomas, Famous Bull-Baiter 

These are the Chronicles, writ in the year A.D., 1925, of the 
Billionaire Group and the Land of the Three P's, namely : 
Plenty, Prosperity, and Poverty. That is to say, Plenty for All, 
Prosperity for the Few, and Poverty for the Millions. 

It was in the Land of the Big Interests that this Order of the 
Billionaire Group was founded some fifty years or so ago. The 
founders were politely referred to as Great Financiers and 
commonly regarded as Captain Kidds of Industry. They were 
a Species of Human Phenomena Tremendously Superior to all 
other Men. They Claimed to Possess no Vices and were Known 
to Possess Mighty Few Virtues. 

The Billionaire Group has been the Whole Thing for, lo, these 
many years. In Vulgar Parlance, the Group is "It," with a 
Magnified I. It has now become, in effect, National, State and 
Municipal Governments ; Congress, Legislatures and Courts. In 
fact, practically everything Worth While with the Splendid Ex- 
ception of that Patriotic and Glorious Part of a Free Press which 
can be Neither Bought nor Intimidated. 

Were these Writings not confined Strictly to the Recording 
of Facts, it Might be Permissible to Digress sufficiently to Pre- 
dict that this Unpurchasable and Fearless Contingent of a Free 
Press will yet Lead a Great People out of Economic Bondag: 
into the Open Fields of Opportunity and Endeavor. And fur- 
ther to Predict that, when That Day shall come, then will be Com- 
pleted for the First Time in All History the Triune of Perfect 
Liberty, namely : Political Liberty, Religious Liberty and Eco- 
nomic Liberty. The last named member of that Trinity alone re- 
mains to be Realized by the Citizens of this Republic. 

But, to return to my Chronicles — A Few Financial Pygmies, 
not yet Absorbed by the Billionaire Group, are still permitted, in 
this Year, A.D. 1925, to Root along the Lean Furrows in the 
Fallow Fields of Finance and Dig for What is Left, but they 
Know and they Keep their Places. 



94 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 



The Noble Examples set by the Successive Heads and Lead- 
ing Members of the Billionaire Group, in their Strenuous Efforts 
to Acquire the Earth and to Fence it in, are I-dollar-trously imi- 
tated by the lesser Foraging Freebooters of Finance ; the Pro- 




The Last of St. Thomas, the Bull Baiter 

fessional Polluters of Politics ; the Filchers of Franchises ; the 
Despoilers of the Dead, and the Tainted Money Moralists and 
Subsidized Press. 

The Gilded Scions of the Billionaire Group are taught the 
Relentless Religion of Greed and Graft, and Admonished to Cul- 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM . 95 

tivate a cunning Dexterity in the Grab-Money Game which will 
enable them to Get There with Both Feet, while at the Same time 
Keeping Prayerfully within the Law and Out of Jail. 

The Possession of these accomplishments once Fully Demon- 
strated, the Noble Novitiate is Forthwith advanced to the Position 
of Past-Master of High Finance. He then becomes, Ipso Facto, 
eligible to the Inner Social Circles of the Four Hundred; to 
Write-ups in Pads and Pantsies ; to a Box-Seat at the Horse 
Show, and to being Classified as a Non-Resident Tax-Dodger. 
To higher achievements than these, either in Business or Society, 
the most Vaultingly Ambitious among them Seldom strives to 
Mount. 

The Intangible Organism, with its Rules and Regulations, by 
means of which the Billionaire Group has Repeatedly worked the 
Confiding Public to a Helpless and Hopeless Finish, were orig- 
inally Denominated "The System," some two or three decades 
since, by one of the First and Most Powerful as well as one 
of the Most Brilliant and Most Dreaded of its Antagonists. 

This Human Catapult was none other than the Celebrated, 
Bean-Eating Rib-Roaster, known to Wall and State Streets, as 
well as to the Ninety Millions of Reputable Inhabitants of the 
Land, as Rawson W. Thomas,, and also, latterly, as St. Thomas, 
the Bull-Baiter. 

Some years later, about 1917, this Bean-Eating Champion of 
the Shorn Lambs mysteriously Disappeared from the Face of the 
Earth and also from the Stock Market. He had Succeeded, how- 
ever, in Accumulating a Fortune, modest in these Latter days, of 
something over Five Billions of Dollars. 

Even this Moderate Success, by one Not a M ember of the 
Billionaire Group, filled every Timid soul in that Trembling Ag- 
gregation of Moneymaniacs with Biting Bitterness and Tan- 
talizing Terrors. Each one lived in Constant Dread of Landing 
in the Poorhouse so long as the Demon Bull-Baiter was at Large. 

These things all combined to Amalgamate a Sentiment, among 
the Billionaire Group and its Partisans, against the apparently In- 
vincible Bull-Baiter. Hence, his Mysterious Disappearance at 
the time stated, while Shocking, was Not Wholly Unexpected to 
the Public at Large nor to Several other Persons. 

The most Plausible Theory of his Premature Taking off that 



% THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

has ever been Advanced is that, after being Partially Hypnotized 
in a manner Applied less Effectively some years Before, the Re- 
doubtable Bull-Baiter was Shamelessly Decoyed into the very 
Inner Fastness of "The System's" Stronghold in Greater New 
York. From this Secret Apartment, so the theory runs, it is sup- 
posed that the Helpless, I [ypnotized Human was Shunted through 
one of the Billionaire Group's private Pipe Lines into a Yat of 
Boiling Oil, especially prepared for the Auspicious Occasion, and 
Scientifically Converted into a Stranded Oil By-Product. At any 
rate, he never has been seen or heard of since the year 1917. 

In due time a Will, a Last Will and Testament, was Found. 
Surprising to Relate, after Generously Providing for the Mem- 
bers of his own Family, and for many Faithful Friends and Serv- 
itors, the Famous Bull-Baiter had Devised the Bulk of his Vast 
Estate to the New York Yacht Club. Since the Securing of that 
Astonishing Windfall, this Celebrated Club has Enjoyed the 
Unique Distinction of being the Richest Eleemosynary Institu- 
tion anywhere in the Known or Lmknown \Yorld. 

The Original Skidoo Twenty-Three 

111 FORE 

Ate, iiii: Goddess of Revenge 

Time — The Present. 

Scene — Court Room in the Halfway Station en route from the 
Earth to the Lower World. Ate, Goddess of Revenge, Sitting 
in Judgment. Ate is in Love with Gyges, Satan's Deputy, and 
with much Smirking Plainly Reveals Her Infatuation for Him. 

/;/ Attendance — Furies, Fates and Harpies in Great Numbers, 

(Enter Gyges with a Prisoner, the Original Skidoo Twenty- 
Three, late President of the Exploitum, Waterlogged <5* Doem 
Railroad Company. Gyges is Wholly Indifferent to Ate's In- 
fatuation for Him, hut, not wishing to anger Her, He Shrewdly 
Dissembles and Returns in Kind Her Smirking Attentions.) 

"Whomsl have ye here, Gyges, me handsome lad, be tlf nap 
m' ill' neck?" inquired tin- fierce Goddess, \ie. as she sat in her 
wonted state i" judge selected passers-by From earth to hades, 
while at the same time consumed 1>\ her infatuation for Gyges. 

" I his, ilium, he yer leaf," responded Gyges, Satan's Deputy, 
"is tli' ( Original Skidoo Twenty-Three. I raptured him in New 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 



97 



York be strategy and surprise. He's a wily cove, though, an' I 
must kape me grip on him er he'll be givin' me th' slip an' skippin' 
off fer earth agin' widout so much as a civil good-bye." 




Skidoo 23 — "Me Respected Goddess, I'm a Model Citizen" 

"An' what's th' charge agin' him, Gyges, me Swate Kitten 
Heart?" propounded the judicial Ate. 

"Charges, mum !" exclaimed Gyges. "Why, th' list of 'em 

would reach from here to Wall Street. Howsumiver, th' most 

di'bolical misadventure alleged agin' him is th' mistellaneous 

acquirement, be nefarious an' unholy practices, ov siveral hunderds 

7 



98 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

of millions ov dollars which belonged ter millions ov honest people 
on earth. Ter begin wid he was er sort ov er sindicated railroad 
Prisident an' a few hunderds ov ither things, an' he secretously 
incubated rebates an' sich like things ter bate th' band an' ivery- 
body else." 

''Horrors! as bad as that?" screaked Ate. "Does yees mean 
lit, Gyges, me Honey Boy?" 

'Tis thrue, an' pitty 'tis 'tis thrue, mum. An' besides, he 
give th' poor Wall Street lambs th' double cross. An' he done ut, 
too, be tellin' 'em that th' Exploitum, Waterlogged & Doem Rail- 
road Company, ov which he was Prisidint, had a bad case ov 
marvelous feenancial prosteration an' would niver agin' pay a 
dividind. Th' story was all tu th' bad. Th' very nixt day th' 
Company racovered an' paid one rigilar dividind an' half a dozen 
irrigilar dividinds." 

"Law-me, Gyges, dearie," cried Ate, "they wasn't nothin' 
wrong about that, was they?" 

"Sure Mike — er, mum, I means — fer ye see th' only fellers 
on th' inside was this here Prisidint ov th' Exploitum, Water- 
logged & Doem Railroad Company, th' Kink ov England, th' 
Impriss ov Chinny an' a Flooradoora Girl." 

"An' thin what happened, Gyges, me Swate Apollo?" ques- 
tioned the infatuated Goddess. 

"What happened, beautuous Queen?" shouted Gyges. "Why. 
there wasn't nothin' that didn't happen tu th' poor lambs — th' 
poor things was fleeced, skint an' crematiated." 

"An' how did his Skidooship, an' th' Kink ov England, th' 
Impriss ov Chinny an' th' Flooradoora Girl make out?" 

"Thim four," wailed Gyges, "why they jist swiped ivery thing 
visuable and invisuable. They cleaned up fifty millions apiece 
— jist like findin' ut — jist like findin' ivery cint ov ut." 

"This," muttered Queen Ate, as she frantically bit her finger 
nails, "this is th' very wurst I ivver, ivver heered." 

"An' jist as me laddy here," continued Gyges, "th' Prisidint 
ov th' Exploitum, Waterlogged & Doem Railroad Company, got 
through countin' his fifty million plunks I snuck in an' grabbed 
him, an' here he is." 

"An* a good catch ye made, too, Gyges, me Fateful Night 
Errand," commended the Goddess. Then turning to the quaking 



.THE HOWELL SYSTEM 99 

prisoner, she thundered with terrifying vehemence: "Skidoo 
Twenty-Three, what have yees tu say fer yerself?" 

"What have I to say, Respected Goddess? Why, I — I, why, 
I'm a model citizen," responded the terrified Skidoo. "I gave em- 
ployment to thousands" — 

"Yis, an' paid thim jist enough to kape body an' soul to- 
gether, ye haythen," interrupted the wrathful Ate, "an' ye wid yer 
hunderds ov millions, an' ye nivver made a real dollar in yer life/' 

"And I never swear, nor drink, nor use tobacco, and I pay my 
pew rent regularly," whined the erstwhile autocrat of Wall 
Street. 

"Yis, but ye robbed yer imployees an' yer brother men right 
an' lift, an' ye grafted more millions than th' Divil himsilf could 
count in a century, an' what good did yees ivver do wid ut ?" 

"Good, Great Queen?" ventured the trembling Skidoo, "I gave 
a dollar to the Galveston flood sufferers." 

"How's that, Gyges, me Noble Beauty?" said Ate. "Did he 
do that?" 

"Yis, he done that, mum," answered Gyges. 

"W r ell, Skidoo, what ither good' deed did ye ivver do?" de- 
manded the fiery Goddess. 

"I gave sixty-five cents," sobbed Skidoo, "to aid the San Fran- 
cisco earthquake unfortunates." 

"Is that right, Gyges, me pet?" inquired Ate. 
'Tis thrue, mum, 'tis thrue," replied Gyges. 

"An' kin yees think ov anything else dacent that ye ivver done 
w r id yer money, Skidoo?" cynically demanded the relentless Ate. 

"Let me see — let me think," anxiously mumbled the shaking 
Skidoo. "Oh, yes — yes — I gave a dollar and thirty-five cents to 
the victims of fiery Vesuvius." 

"How's that, Gyges, me Beloved?" questioned Ate. 

"Yis, that's c'rect, too, mum," scornfully responded Gyges, "he 
loosened up tu th' ixtint ov a couple ov meal tickets fer th' Dagoes. 
Wid th' ither princely donations th' total aggravates th' staggerin' 
sum ov three dollars." 

"Kin yees think ov anything more, Skidoo?" impatiently vo- 
ciferated the merciless Ate. 

"That's all, mighty Queen," faintly replied Skidoo. 

"Ah, ha! that's all, is't?" viciously hissed the implacable God- 



100 . THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

dess of Revenge. "Gyges, give him back his three dollars an' 
let him go to hell.* 

"This august session now bein' ended," resumed the Goddess, 
as she recovered her wonted composure and smiled upon Gyges, 
"we will all — Furies, Fates, Harpies an' all — immegiately adjourn 
tu th' Great Secret Lodge Room. There, in due form, we will 
preceed tu illiterate intu th' mysteries ov th' Lower World our 
new candidate, th' illustrious Original Skidoo Twenty-Three." 
(All Exit to Lodge Room.) 

Midas Billionaire at the River Styx 

"Charon, thou grim and ancient ferryman of the river Styx," 
queried Momus, the god of ridicule and satire, as Charon was 
about to push off his fated craft for Hades, "who is his bald- 
headed nibs in the seat there abaft the beam ?" 

"That, Mo, why don't you know that ancient sinner? That's 
old Midas Billionaire." 

"No, get out! You don't mean it?" 

"Yes, honest it is ! He's the cliver chap who," continued 
Charon, "by methods deceptive and tricks that were mean, suc- 
cessfully enticed Bacchus to cause everything he touched to turn 
to gold." 

"Oh me, oh my! But won't that tickle the Boss!" exclaimed 
the scoffing Momus. "He's the gazabo, isn't he, from that little 
spot they call the earth, who offered St. Peter a billion simoleons 
to pass him into Elysium along with that meek, little Red Cross 
lassie who didn't have the price of a harp, not even of a jew's- 
harp?" 

"That's the same old boy, Mo, the identical chap," chuckled 
Charon with a Satanic grin, "and you can see that St. Peter 
didn't do a thing to the old duffer ! Not a thing, except to con- 
fiscate all his worldly possessions ; decorate him with the ears 
of an ass, and send him down here, on the Skidoo slide, to serve 
an everlasting sentence and nine days over — ha ! ha ! haw !" 

"And the specifications, Char, what arc they?" gleefully 
quizzed the grinning Momus. 

"Ah, there, Mo, there is where the Old Gatekeeper got in his 

*This story is not original. It is adapted from one found in 
the archives of Ancient Babylon. 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 101 

fine Italian handiwork," guffawed the wily ferryman. ''Old 
Midas Billionaire is sentenced to sit in a redhot, golden chair, 
golden chains and shackles and in blazing golden wig. And, 
worst of all, there is to be in constant view but just beyond his 
reach billions upon billions of golden ducats, the which he may 
never so much as touch, and never own so much as a hair's weight 
of all that matchless, measureless treasure; and him a-thinking 
all the time, too, that, if he could get a bunch of it, he could buy 
his way out of the exaggerated summer resort to which I am 
about to conduct him.'' 

"Well, well, ha ! ha !" laughed the satirical Momus with al- 
most splitting sides, "and that's no joke, either! St. Peter never 
jokes about matters like that. But, my goodness, gracious, Char, 
old boy, it is to laugh! it is to laugh!" 

"Yes, Mo," breathlessly responded Charon, "it is to laugh! 
Even you and I must have our little diversions now and then, 
ha! ha! or we'd go stale, sure, in this warm climate — ha! ha! oh, 
ah-h-aw ! !" 

"Sure thing. Char," sympathetically rejoined the laughing 
Momus. "And, say, Char, what a lot of fun old Midas Billionaire 
will have with himself thinking of that poor, penniless little Red 
Cross lass that St. Peter passed right into Elysium as though the 
poor little beggar owned the entire premises — ah ! ha ! my good- 
ness, it's too funny ! it's really too rich on the too rich ! — ah ! ha ! 
h-a-w!!" 

"Yes, thou art right, Mo. You always were quick to see the 
point of a joke," laughed the ferryman. "It's a good one on the 
too rich — ha ! ha ! ee-haw ! ! But, so long, Mo, so long. I must 
be pushing off with his hilarious nibs here in the boat or he'll be 
getting impatient — im-im-p-p-ha-ha. Mo, ha ! ha ! — impatient to be 
ferried across the Styx, Mo, ha ! ha ! And, besides, if I'm late, 
ah! ha! you know I'll get — well, you know what I'll get, ha! ha!" 

"Well, so long, Char, old pal — goodby, and don't forget to be 
good until we meet again. If you can't be good, be careful.". 
{Boat starts across the Styx.) "Well, well," chuckles Momus to 
himself, as Charon with boat and passenger fades away, "that is 
rich, really too rich on the too rich — ah! ha! oh! ha! ee-h-a-w!" 



PART VIII 

ELANK FORMS FOR READERS TO FILL OUT AND MAIL 

Form for General Approval; Same, With Contribution 
Clause ; For Capitalist or Other Person of Means ; Special 
for Ministers of the Gospel ; For Editors and Publishers ; 
For Knockers of The Howell System ; For Ordering Pamph- 
let and Literature. 



103 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM— VIII 



If you are interested in any way in The Howell System 
proposition, you are invited to write the author, or fill out any 
one or more of the accompanying blank forms which best meet 
your particular requirements, and mail to Chas. M. Howell, 
32 Broadway, New York City. 

In a matter of this kind, the author has always recognized the 
fact and has learned from experience that many people, especially 
among employees and those sustaining close business or profes- 
sional relations with The Billionaire Group or any of its col- 
lateral branches, can not afford to and should not be called upon 
or expected to become publicly identified with any movement 
or proposed reform which contemplates important economic 
changes in the interest of the great body politic — the ninety-five 
per cent of the population of the entire country. 

Consequently, as a matter of self-protection, I advise all per- 
sons so situated not to jeopardize their positions or material in- 
terests, or in any way impair their ability or lessen their oppor- 
tunities for providing for their families and worthy dependents, 
by becoming publicly identified with The Howell System move- 
ment or propaganda. 

From all those who, in fact as well as theoretically, are in- 
dependent, and who approve the proposed System, I shall be grat- 
ified to receive cooperation and support in any manner which to 
them may be most convenient and practicable. 

All correspondence, personal interviews and conferences with 
persons who express the wish that the same shall be considered 
confidential will be sacredly so treated. 

For some time, the expenses incident to a wide-spread national 
propaganda such as the one hereby inaugurated is necessarily 
greatly beyond gross cash receipts. Consequently, while I do 
not herein directly solicit contributions towards defraying such 
expenses, all sums contributed for such purpose will be highly 
appreciated and properly accounted for to the contributors. 

Be sure to write names and addresses distinctly. Also 
if they are to be considered confidential do not fail to mark 
on margin or across face of the form either "Confidential" or 
"Private." 

105 



106 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

General Approval Blank 

Chas. M. Howell, Dated 

32 Broadway, 

New York City. 
Dear Sir : — 

I am interested in and approve your proposed Howell System 
of National Laws for the Establishing of Economic Liberty, and 
request the mailing to me, from time to time, of notices of printed 
matter on the subject and of terms for obtaining supplies of same. 
(List of additional names and addresses of interested persons 
may be included.) 



Signed 



Address 



Blank Form for Contributing Any Amount 

Chas. M. Howell, Dated 

32 Broadway, 

New York City. 
Dear Sir : — 

I am interested in and approve your proposed Howell System 
of National Laws for the Establishing of Economic Liberty, and 
I request the mailing to me, from time to time, of notices of 
printed matter on the subject and of terms for obtaining sup- 
plies of same. 

As a contribution to the expenses of the propaganda, I en- 
close for which please acknowledge 

state the amount. 

receipt. 

(List of names and addresses of interested persons may also 
be enclosed.) 

Signed 

Address 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 107 

Blank for Capitalist or Any Person of Means 
Note: — The Fortune of any Person of Means — worth any 
amount up to, say, Five or Six Millions of Dollars — will be Much 
More Secure, and its Possessor, as a Member of Community, 
will be a More Respected, because he will be, relatively, a More 
Powerful, Factor in Business and Financial Circles, under the 
Howell System of National Laws than under Existing Economic 
Conditions, with the Billionaire Group in Irresponsible and Ir- 
resistible Control. 

Dated 

Chas. M. Howell, 

32 Broadway, 

New York City. 
Dear Sir : — 

Believing that there is much truth contained in the above 
''Note," and great merit in your proposed Howell System of 
National Laws, I take this means of advising you that I am 
disposed to correspond or to confer with you, confidentially, with 
a view to aiding in the financing of the project, providing I find 
that it can be done on a practical basis. 

Signed > 

Address 



Special Blank for Editors and Publishers 

In my capacity of would-be reformer of fundamental eco- 
nomic conditions, I have had a long and varied and a most unique 
experience with the editors and publishers of metropolitan news- 
papers and periodicals. The story would fill a good-sized volume. 
Some day it may be told. I have studied these peculiar literary 
species from a similar standpoint, and with a like kindly tol- 
eration, to that maintained by the late Josiah Flint towards the 
American hobo during his personal contact with and study of 
that interesting product of the same economic conditions which 
yield the near-billionaire. Suffice it now to say that, taking them 
all in all, these publishers and editors average up very well, not 
only as to manners, but morally, physically, spiritually, spirituous- 
ly and intellectually — in truth, a very good lot, with here and 



108 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

there a reprehensible exception. There is many a genius among 
them and occasionally you will meet one who is almost human. 

The saddest thing regarding the editors of these great pub- 
lications is that, as a class, they are hired men. They are owned, 
body and soul and intellect, by the counting room — sort of cash 
register attachments. This means, either directly or indirectly, 
ownership by the Billionaire Group. Not one in ten of them can 
give free expression to his real sentiments on many of the most 
vital public issues in the columns or pages which his genius 
adorns. On the other hand, with a brilliancy worthy of a better 
fate, nine out of ten of them can write ably and entertainingly, 
either in a serious or facetious vein, on every side of every sub- 
ject submitted to them for literary treatment. Consequently, al- 
though they have for years buffeted my Great Cause about (per- 
sonally, of course, I make no plaint), in a manner most shame- 
ful and unjustified, I am bound to confess that "with all their 
faults I love them still," and still better when they are not still. 

Furthermore, and per consequence, I hereto append- a blank 
form for the convenience of said editors and publishers, but es- 
pecially for the former. They are invited to express, for once 
in their brilliant careers, their real sentiments, without fear or 
favor, on the greatest subject on which they can be called upon 
to write, The Howell System of National Laws for the Estab- 
lishment of Economic Liberty. Their names and addresses 
must accompany their communications, but as a matter of good 
faith and not necessarily for publication. 

The Blank Form for Editors and Publishers 

Chas. M. Howell, Dated 

32 Broadway, 

New York Citv. 



Signed 



Address 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM 109 

Blank Form for Business Men_and Others Refused Proper 
Financial Accommodations 

I maintain that, in recent years, the honest, energetic, re- 
source fnl and otherwise successful man of moderate affairs, in 
vast numbers and at an increasing ratio from year to year, has 
been driven into bankruptcy or forced out of business, by the 
crushing methods of the great individual capitalist and the Bil- 
lionaire Group. This has been largely by means of the system- 
atic refusal on the part of the big capitalists and great banking 
institutions to extend proper and timely loans and banking facili- 
ties, even when adequate security has been offered, and at times 
when they have been searching the world over for investments of 
hundreds of millions of dollars of their surplus, idle funds. A 
great deal of information has reached me to justify such a 
conviction. 

In order, however, to obtain positive and tangible data on 
the subject, I urge upon persons who have gone through or who 
are passing through such experiences to mail me statements con- 
taining leading particulars. In no case will name and address 
be made public if marked "private" or "confidential." It is my 
intention to have analyzed and tabulated the information thus 
obtained for use in this movement for economic justice. Use fol- 
lowing blank or write or do both. 

Blank Form for Persons Refused Secured Loans 

Chas. M. Howell, Dated 

32 Broadway, 

New York City. 
Dear Sir: — 

My experience is in line with your contention as above set 
forth. I enclose statement of main particulars. 



Signed 



Address 



Special Blanks for Ministers of the Gospel 

In view of the fact that the proposed Howell System is based 
on the moral right of things, and on the contention that every- 
thing in law and economics which is not in harmony with moral 



110 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 

right partakes of the nature of crime if not actually criminal, 
no matter how hoary with age or completely disguised, I make 
a special appeal to ministers of all religious creeds and denomina- 
tions to devote some attention in one or more sermons or ad- 
dresses to the consideration of the subject. 

True charity is Christ-like and ennobles both the giver and 
the worthy object of its ministrations, but I maintain that the 
pseudo-charity and benevolence, as manifested by stupendous do- 
nations and foundations, by the unjustifiably rich, as belated sub- 
stitutes for justice to the great wealth-producing masses of the 
people, are an abomination and an offense to both God and to all 
right-thinking men. 

Can it be imagined, if Christ were to appear on earth again 
for a long sojourn among the people of this republic, becoming a 
man among men ; penniless, but with the way open before Him 
for becoming the greatest employer of men, women and children 
the country ever has known — in a word, the greatest of all the 
so-called Captains of Industry — can it be imagined, I ask, that 
He would accumulate, upon any conceivable pretext whatever, in 
the course, say, of fifty years, a private fortune of hundreds of 
millions of dollars? If not, why not? If it would be ethically 
wrong for Christ to do such a thing, is it not morally wrong 
for men to misappropriate to themselves such boundless wealth 
regardless of how they may subsequently administer or dispose 
of it? If you reply affirmatively, then should not adequate legal 
restrictions be placed upon all men to prevent such individual 
accumulations of wealth? 

The above questions are asked as suggesting a few of the many 
points to be considered. A limited number of the present edition 
of this booklet will be set apart for free distribution to ministers 
who will fill out and forward the following blank, or write me 
to the same effect : 

Ciias. M. Howell, Dated 

32 Broadway, 

New York City. 

Dear Sir: — 

I am interested in your proposed Howell System of National 
Laws for the Establishing of Economic Liberty. While re- 



THE HOWELL SYSTEM . Ill 

serving to myself full liberty of criticism, favorable or adverse, 
I will give the subject some attention in a sermon or an address 
at the first opportunity after the receipt of your booklet, free, 
containing the text of the System. 



Signed. 
Address 



Blank Form for the Knockers 

Here is a special blank for the use of the Knockers against 
The Howell System. So, hammer away, ye recalcitrants. I con- 
sole myself with- the words of Shakespeare: 

"Cowards die many times before their deaths ; 
The valiant never taste of death but once." 

Chas. M. Howell, Dated 

32 Broadway, 

New York City. 

Signed 

Address 



Blank for Ordering Book 

Chas. M. Howell, Dated 

32 Broadway, 

New York City. 
Dear Sir: — 

Enclosed you will find for which please 

forward to the address given below the number of copies of your 
Howell System booklet for which the remittance pays. 

Single copies. 50 cents each. 

Two to one hundred copies 30 cents each. 

Over one hundred copies 25 cents each. 

Special Rates on 1,000 edition. 

Signed 

Address 

Very Important — Be Sure to Have Name and Address Writ- 
ten Plainly. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS # 

„ r n „ H ' llllllllllllfllllilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll 

027 273 687 A 



112 THE HOWELL SYSTEM 



The Un mercenaries 

The anonymous author of this beautiful little poem should not 
"hide his light under a bushel." Its writer has earned the right 
to be known to fame. The poem appears in a volume entitled 
'The Humbler Poets." 

Jolly good fellows who die for the death of it, 
Fight for the fun of it, live for the breath of it ; 
Catch at the instant and drink of the minute, 
Thinking not, caring not, what may be in it ; 

Foolish good fellows (and all of us know it), 
Wasting their midnights in being a poet, 
Giving their lives to the life of humanity, 
Dreaming of fame — that extreme of insanity ; 

Silly good fellows who labor for science, 
Lighting the way for their race's reliance. 
Bearing their burdens with mien of a stoic, 
Dreaming of gratitude — myth unheroic ; 

All the good fellows who think not of wages, 
Foreign, in part, to the thing that our age is, 
Giving no heed to the weight of the coffer. 
Taking what Fate and not men have to offer ; 

They and the like of them, here's a health to them ! 
Taint of our lower aims never undo them ; 
They will survive us all, passed through the portal : 
Life often jests at what death makes immortal ! 



r 



w 



The following books should be read by all. 
They deal with the most vital interests of more 
than ninety-five per cent of the population of the 
United States: 

A Curb to Predatory Wealth; 

By W. V. Marshall 

Book of 134 pages, dealing with the Pro- 
gressive Tax in All Its Phases as a System 
and a Corrective. Price, cloth bound, post- 
paid, $1.00, National Square Deal Club, 
Berlin, Pa. 

By the same author, and at same ad- 
dress "Competition." Cloth bound, 100 
pages, postpaid, $1.00. 

The Twentieth Century Awakening. 

By Ernest A. Hornberger. 

905 Arrott Building, Pittsburg, Pa. 

Paper bound, 64 pages. Price, 25 cents, 
postpaid . Either of author or National 
Square Deal Club, Berlin, Pa. 

By the same author, and at either of 

same addresses, "The World's Great- 
est Emancipation/ * Paper, 5 cents. 
Everybody can have insured work and 
wages on merit. 

Graduated Taxation of Property, 

By General Percy Daniels, Carthage, Mo. 

Paper. Price 10 cents, postpaid. Either 
of author or National Square Deal Club, 



- j~> n 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 



AUG 



2$ I9n 



